Before visiting the bank, I had called Scott to our mother’s house where he faced his overwhelming shame upon seeing the watch box in her lap. My mother made him read my father’s note, causing Scott to break down as he realized our father completely anticipated his betrayal. My mother then handed him a second hidden note from our father, expressing profound love and explaining that he was no longer going to enable Scott financially. Using her newfound wealth, my mother put aside funds for herself, paid off my mortgage, established education accounts for her four grandchildren, and devised a brilliant plan for Scott. She invited him over and presented a choice between being rescued, which meant someone else carrying his burden, or being helped, which meant walking beside him while he carried it himself. She noted that our father had never learned the difference between the two, but she fully intended to change that dynamic. Scott accepted her help, allowing her to pay off his massive debt while establishing a strict fifteen year repayment plan at four hundred dollars a month.
Over the past two years, Scott has remarkably transformed his life by confronting his demons and learning a highly skilled trade. When he nearly relapsed outside a local tavern, he instead called Ed Pruitt, who had been sober for nineteen years and subsequently brought Scott to weekly recovery meetings at a church in Struthers. Scott now works three days a week at Ed’s shop repairing watches with incredibly steady hands, having already fixed forty one timepieces without selling a single one. He consistently makes his monthly payments to our mother, noting each payment in his own handwriting in the green ledger. The original steel Timex now sits proudly on my mother’s dresser with a brand new leather band, perfectly keeping time. During our last Christmas gathering, Scott presented our mother with a tiny folded note he wrote himself, meant to be placed inside his own watch someday. As my mother read his heartfelt promise that he finally knew where he placed his trust and love, our entire family felt the profound healing our father had orchestrated from beyond.