CHAPTER 1 - THE BILLIONAIRE- PART 3 - THE GOLDEN YEARS
Hi it's Josie again. I've just finished peeling the vegetables for dinner and now I'm walking down on the beach. I just love my life here.
I thought I'd have a bit of fun earlier with Kyrano by asking him what's doing tomorrow night. He can't look me in the face long enough to lie to me. To think I still have twenty-four hours of this charade to go.
There'll be one of two outcomes before much longer .One, I'll tell you absolutely everything about this family or two, they will relent and admit the party is on. I might let them off if that happens.
If not you'll know it all.
Well since the last time we talked I guess you've been wondering just how that son of mine ever recovered from what went on in his life during those tough years.
Well the Tracy family breed their young blood tough and they survive almost anything.
Look at my grandsons. You won't get any tougher than those five, risking their lives out there for International Rescue day in and day out. They wouldn't do it if they didn't have the Tracy blood in them, that I'll say, and it was their Father who gave it to them.
Jeff Tracy is the toughest man I know when it comes to survival.
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Stage 6 - The Recovery
I guess it is fair for someone like me to say that when you hit rock bottom it's quite reassuring. Why is that you ask? Well, the way I look at it is this; if you can't go down any further then you have to at least be on the way up again.
That was what happened with Jeff after that dreadful night he broke down. I called his Doctor in and after seeing Jeff, he told me in no uncertain terms that my son had big problems.
Well tell his mother something she didn't already know before she picked up the telephone!
Heck, his wife had just died, he had five little boys to raise, his business was almost bankrupt and he had problems? I couldn't believe it took this man six years of medical school to work that out!
However, I held my tongue long enough to ask the doctor what the options were.
They were simple and to the point.
Jeff needed to be hospitalised to rest as he was exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally. He was a danger to himself and his five little boys in his current state of health and mind. After the fright with Alan, I had to agree.
The Doctor went on further to outline the major steps Jeff would have to take or be made to take to recover.
First and most importantly, he needed grief counselling to learn to deal with his feelings about what had happened to Lucy. I knew he would reluctant to do that. Jeff kept his feelings close to his chest. The Doctor said it was imperative.
While that was happening, the Doctor said he had to stop trying to care for the children on his own despite not wanting any one else to shoulder the burden.
There was no doubt that he had to try and get some sleep and eat properly. Well I'd been trying to tell him if he let me help with the children more he would be able to do that.
The Doctor was alarmed when told about his drinking. He instructed me that Jeff had to cut back or preferably stop all together. I decided that the easiest way would be to just not let it in the house. I reflected later, much to my dismay how hard that was going to be. Not for Jeff but for me.
A Scotch in the evenings was the only way I'd been able to cope with Alan during the last few months. Cups of tea did not help my nerves by the time I had tolerated one of his screaming fits.
I also knew that he had to get his business back on track. I think Lucy must have been messing with my head from where she was up there in heaven, as all of a sudden I started to have all sorts of thoughts about what he could do. It had to be Lucy telling me that he should take the risk with Asia again because what would I know? I had the thought and then just laughed at myself. However, once his health was improving I'd suggest it was time.
Now I was fifty-five when all this happened and I was no spring chicken let me tell you. I had been left in the middle of this crisis and I asked myself how I was going to cope if Jeff wasn't able to.
Well my name is Josie and I decided that my son was going to make it through this. I knew II had to take over everything here while he recovered.
Now I can tell you it wasn't easy doing that.
I knew the contract Jeff had been preparing before he broke down had been important to him. However as I told you before, I know nothing about business but I know Lucy was helping me out. I managed to find the contract and rang the contact number on it. I arranged for its' delivery. I hoped Jeff had put it together right. I didn't have a clue.
I pulled Scott and Virgil together and asked them to help me a lot more with the little ones. Scott willingly took over bathing Gordon and reading to John. Virgil, even though he still had not reached his sixth birthday learned to set and clear the table and kept Alan amused during his long vigils of sleeplessness while I tended the laundry and the cooking. They both tended to John when he lay awake at night crying for Lucy. I feel sometimes that comforting John helped them deal with their own grief a little better as most times all three of them would end up in John's bed holding each other tight and crying together. Those three little boys became very close during that time and they are still close.
I checked Scott's fourth grade homework as I fed Alan late in the evenings. Usually Scott sat on one side of me and Virgil on the other and we would talk about how things were going at school and how their Daddy was feeling and how good it was that he was getting better and would soon be home from the hospital.
I certainly hoped that it would be soon. I was getting pretty run down myself with all of this.
Jeff was allowed out of hospital after three weeks and came home feeling ashamed of how he had let his family down by breaking down as he had. I told him that notion was nonsense. At least it had made him wake up to himself.
He looked a lot better now after having some uninterrupted sleep and some decent food.
He had started grief counselling at the hospital and whilst he didn't talk about Lucy to any of us, he made an effort to deal with his grief the very first day he arrived home.
I wondered what he was doing when he went to the trunk of the car that still had her case in it from nearly four months ago and took it out. I watched him from the hallway as he forced himself to unpack it.
He took out each item of her clothing one at a time and looked at it. He held some to his face to smell her scent again. Others, like the dress she had been wearing when they left the house for the hospital, he held close to his chest as if never wanting to let it go. There was her hairbrush that still had strands of her chestnut hair trapped in it. He removed the hair and wound it around his fingers as he had often done with her curls. There were her personal items that a house full of boys would never need.
That case was his last real connection with her. He put everything back exactly where she kept it and closed the case as if trying to close off that part of his life. He then allowed himself to cry. At least he was finally starting to let his grief out. I didn't interfere with this sad moment and elected to simply shut the door on him. He knew I had seen him but he seemed more comfortable about it now.
After a while, he came out of the room carrying Alan. Alan was wide-awake and simply staring up at his Father, a welcome change from his usual hysteria.
It turned out Jeff had woken him. As he reached into the refrigerator for Alan's bottle, he looked at me embarrassed.
"Mom you saw me just now didn't you?"
"Yes I saw you. "I said.
I didn't have to say anything else and neither did he.
"Thank you Mom." he said.
"For what?"
"For getting me help."
I put my arms out for the baby. He shook his head. I instantly became cross.
"Now Jeff, if I'm going to get you better, you have to let me look after the children."
He continued to shake his head.
"I know that mother but let me give him this please. I need to hold my son after doing what I did just now."
I nodded. Of course he did. He would need to hold that little baby close to his chest in order to comfort himself that Lucy had not died for nothing. For once Alan didn't cry before, during or after his feeding. Had Lucy intervened again? Well I reckon she did. It gave me the chance to talk to him about where this family had to head if it was going to survive.
I sat opposite him and watched him hold Alan as I discussed his problems. He agreed to keep attending the counselling. He didn't think it helped but from what I had seen so far, I convinced him that it had.
He knew he had to dispose of her belongings but he couldn't bring himself to do it... not yet anyway. He didn't want me to do it either so we made an agreement that on the day that Alan walked, we would do it together. He was happy with that.
He agreed to let me tend to the children's needs on the understanding he could intervene when he wanted to. He was adamant and I reluctantly agreed but warned him I would step in if he overdid it. The two of us decided he would look out for the two babies up to ten o'clock each night. I would take over after that so that he could sleep. He agreed that I could go to bed straight after dinner while he and the eldest two boys attended to the clearing up. That usually gave me six hours sleep as well.
I spoke to him about his diet and how his drinking had gotten out of control and he admitted that both had been bad even before Lucy died. It was his only way of coping with the money problems of the Company and his worries about her health.
The two of us then had the final discussion that changed Jeff Tracy's life forever.
ASIA
"Jeff, you won that contract you put together that night you went down."
"I know Mother. Thank you for putting it in for me."
"How much is it worth?"
"Four million dollars."
"Can you get the money up front?"
"Mom you're starting to sound like Lucy."
"I think that I'm speaking for her."
He gave me that look of his. It was the look that Grant had always given me. It meant; don't be ridiculous Josie. I think Jeff was thinking the same thing. He was so like his Father.
"Yeah I could the get the money."
"Is that enough to start the ball rolling again in Asia?"
He sighed.
"Mom I can't. Not with everything that has happened. Lucy didn't want me to expand any further. Not with the boys so small and I've got this little guy now too."
He looked down at Alan and took his tiny hand.
"Well I have no head for business so why am I telling you this? She must be influencing me. I'm just telling you what I'm feeling inside"
He pondered for a while. Lucy had the intuition. She always had. Jeff knew I had none - well no business intuition anyway.
Even he had to wonder if Lucy was speaking to him through me.
"I don't know Mom, " he said unsure. "I've got all the plans drawn up in my Office I suppose. The markets are still there. I guess I could to do it. But it'll be all or nothing."
"Well it's all then. You know I'll help you."
"Mom I'd have to travel a bit. That was what Lucy didn't like last time."
"Jeff. It's all or nothing. I'm telling you Lucy would want you to do it for your sons."
He fell silent then. When he finally stood up to put Alan to bed, I could see his mind ticking over. He could do this. I had sown the seeds in his mind or should I say Lucy had from the dead? Now all I had to do was back him.
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Stage 7 -The Billionaire
Jeff did elect to expand although he waited another month until he had recovered a little more. By using the money from that simple contract I had forwarded for him when he broke down, he had enough floating capital to free up his investments in Asia.
That young man worked tirelessly to build up the company overseas whilst still remaining within the limits of the lifestyle we had agreed upon. He traveled overseas to supervise construction in person and whilst his little boys missed him immensely, we had our lives a bit more in order now.
I have to admit I was pretty tuckered out by all of this but if I had my time over again, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I loved my grandsons more than my own life and they seemed to be starting to accept the fact that their mommy wasn't coming home any more and began looking to me for advice as well as the mothering that they had lost because of her death.
One morning nine-year old Scott awakened me. He had made me breakfast to eat in bed. His Daddy had been away in China at the time. I had had a terrible night with Gordon. He was getting his two-year-old teeth and had cried all night long. Naturally he'd woken Alan who always took every opportunity to be wide awake and naturally complain. As a result I was tired that morning but the sight of that little boy standing there with the tray in his hands chased away any fatigue I felt.
The breakfast was basic; as everything was in our lives while Jeff fought to claw his way back into the business world, but it was beautiful from the toast to the lovingly prepared cup of tea. Scott was a perfectionist even back then.
He told me that he had heard Gordon and Alan crying all night and thought he would make me feel better by making me breakfast. I kissed him and asked him to share the toast with me. He shook his head and sat down quietly next to the bed while I enjoyed it.
"Grandma." he said putting the finished tray on the sideboard. "Can I hug you for a bit?"
I held out my arms to my eldest grandson who asked for very little love of his own, while all the time he gave all that was in him to his brothers. He climbed onto the bed with me and pressed his head to my chest. My arms encircled him and I felt his clasp around my neck. I held him close.
"Grandma." he said after a while. "I miss mommy so much."
He had said very little about Lucy up to now and it was obvious he couldn't keep how he felt inside a secret any longer. Those words were coming from the bottom of a broken nine year old heart and it really made me sad.
I kissed his mop of dark curls and gently rubbed his back.
"I know sweetie." I said softly.
"I wish Daddy was here."
"I know but you understand that Daddy is very busy trying to make life better for you and your little brothers don't you?."
"Yes Grandma but I still wish Daddy was here."
"I know. I wish Daddy was here too."
That God! I was still off side with him for taking Lucy away and moments like this served to remind me how angry I was. It took Gordon's accident for me to ask for his help again but the accident is another story.
Anyway, that's enough about my relationship with God. I'm going to hell anyway to be with Grant so I don't owe God a thing. He certainly hadn't done the Tracy family any favors this past year.
Once the company was in full swing, the stock values rose and Tracy Enterprises was back on the map. Jeff was on the way back up and he knew it. His brilliant business brain was functioning again. He threw all his energies into his endeavors.
I stood quietly in the background raising his children when he wasn't around, and stepping back when he was to allow him to cope with the reality and the changing emotions of being a single Father. He was still raw where Lucy was concerned but he was so focused on his business that he only ever dwelled on it when he was left alone or when one of his sons would say or do something that reminded him of her.
It worried me a lot that he didn't talk to the boys much about their mother. I felt he should be. Maybe he was trying to protect them from the pain he was feeling, but I felt that the moment where Scott had shared his feelings with me should have been between him and his Father.
As Alan approached his first birthday it seemed the despair of the past twelve months was starting to fall behind us.
We were going to make it.
The dreaded day came when the youngest little Tracy son walked, three weeks after his first birthday.
Jeff had promised Lucy he would watch Alan's first steps for her and had stayed home from his work commitments for quite a few days so as not to miss them. Jeff, my son, is a man of his word and keeping his final promise to Lucy was everything to him.
He held out his arms to the little blonde toddler and watched with delight as he walked into them. He picked him up and held him close and I saw Jeff had tears in his eyes. Despite his enjoyment of a precious moment, I was sure he knew before I reminded him that it was time now.
It was time for him to say his final goodbye to Lucy as we had agreed to do all those months ago. Her things needed to be sorted out so he could get on with his life properly.
Now I'm not going to go into what happened that day as I've shed enough tears thinking about those times. Maybe I'll tell you about it some other time, perhaps when I tell you a bit about young Alan but I can tell you, helping pack up that little girl's life with my son and putting the cartons out for disposal was not an easy job.
The years went on and the business grew larger. As my grandsons grew taller and I grew older, our life improved to the point where we were living more than comfortably. We were very wealthy.
However, my five grandsons were still being raised the same as they were before. I would not allow pretentiousness in this house.
Their Daddy was still away from them a lot but he made up for it when he was at home. He loved nothing more than to throw a ball for Alan and Gordon to hit in the back yard, to watch the night stars with Johnny through his telescope, watch Virgil paint and listen to him play the piano and teach Scott the mechanics of flying.
He loved his five sons and so did I. I was proud of them all and especially my own talented and brave son.
For a while I worried he was lonely and tried to talk him about remarrying. He pushed that idea away instantly. He had no plans to ever replace Lucy. She had been his one true love and had changed his life forever. In a way I was glad. They had loved each other so completely. As long as Jeff wasn't lonely and happy in his life I was satisfied.
But he had outgrown Boston now, particularly the modest house he and Lucy had built together and it was time to move on. We moved to New York where Jeff had his Offices. This allowed him to be home more often as his elder boys were now well into their teens and needed his guidance.
They were good boys but let me say Scott and Virgil Tracy certainly had developed an eye for the young ladies and kept bringing a different one home every day after school for me to meet. Scott was nearly seventeen and had grown into an extremely good looking young man. Virgil was only fourteen, but his chestnut hair and the beautiful smile that was Lucy's made him irresistible to his female classmates.
I was worrying after them already. I still remembered the close call Jeff had had at sixteen behind the shed at the church function.
It worried me then that with all his work commitments whether Jeff had spoken to the boys about... Well you know what I'm talking about.
The house we purchased In New York was wonderful and very large. It cost Jeff a fortune but money no longer mattered to him. He was now a billionaire. In nine years he had gone from near nothing to having it all.
I felt very satisfied that I had helped him get there in my own way.
And then what do you think he does to repay me? On my sixty-fourth birthday he tells me he has something to tell me.
That Jeff! He had an ulterior motive when he purchased that huge house and I was too caught up with my grandsons to realize it.
He had decided it was time I retired from the kitchen and started to enjoy my life. He introduced me to his friend Kyrano, a quiet Asian man who had been a Chef at the Paris Hilton. He and his nine year daughter Tin-Tin were moving in with us it seemed.
Jeff had asked Kyrano to come to America to take over the domestic duties from me and in return he would sponsor Tin-Tin's education.
Well happy birthday Josie! No wonder I'm annoyed about this party thing. I was furious with Jeff. Who did he think he was? I wasn't ready for the scrap heap!
I still swam most days of the week at the local pool and could play baseball with Gordon and Alan without disgracing myself too much. I didn't wear grandma clothes or sit in a rocking chair with my slippers on all day. Hell I could probably teach him a thing or too about stamina.
I suppose you can imagine that I refused to give up my kitchen to Kyrano and the two of us really didn't get off to a good start. Nevertheless we ended up making an uneasy truce and established what our roles were going to be. I hate to admit when Jeff's right but it did give me time to get out a bit more.
OK Jeff I do admit it. I did appreciate being able to do things for myself again.
I also enjoyed having a little girl in the house. She was a sweetie and very shy. That youngest grandson of mine struck up a friendship with her quite early in the piece as they were the same age and as you know, that is still going on. Well more than that's going on I can tell you. But I'll tell you about all of that later.
I had a feeling that Jeff had more plans in his head when all of a sudden he announced he had purchased an island in the South Pacific and was constructing a villa. We were going to spend all the boys' vacations there and he informed me that once Alan and Tin-Tin had finished High school we would be leaving New York and the island was to be our permanent home. He would travel to New York for business when he had to.
I couldn't believe it. I was from Kansas and definitely no beach baby. Kyrano didn't even like water and Jeff wanted us to be all alone out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?
I hoped he wasn't going eccentric on me after all these years of common sense.
"Relax Mother." he had laughed. "There's good reason for what I am doing."
Well he didn't elaborate and I didn't ask him. Wherever Jeff wanted to go I was happy to pack up my life and go with him.
As I said, we have been through a lot together.
Stage 8 - The Founder of International Rescue
Well the little Tracy boys who were left to grow up without their Mother became the Tracy men, each of them with different looks and personality but all five of them were strong, tall and handsome. Lucille would have been proud of her boys and proud of how Jeff had brought them up.
By the way and just for the record, Jeff assured me he had talked to each of the boys about his moral and social expectations of them. His morals and expectations were the same as those Grant had given him; however Jeff differed from Grant in that he wanted his sons to follow their own dreams.
Scott joined the Air Force and like Jeff he proved himself to be a born leader, excelling at the academy. I still think a lot of Scott's leadership qualities came from looking after his little brothers in that sad time all those years ago.
Virgil went to College in Denver and my little Johnny excelled at Harvard.
Gordon enlisted in WASP and Alan reluctantly went to College in Colorado. Young Alan was still giving us trouble and it wasn't with screaming fits these days. He just had tantrums now and a frightful temper into the bargain. He was so like Grant!
Now that the boys were away, Jeff began to put the plans he had kept so close to his chest into operation.
A young Engineer named Albert Hackenbacker came to live with us. He was a brilliant young man, the same age as John but with a terrible shyness and a bad stutter. He was the one I told you about before. So brilliant he can't get anything out of his mouth. If only he'd slow down!
Jeff and Albert (or Brains as Jeff called him) spent months in his study, poring over designs and testing aircraft. Kyrano and I had to just about drag them out of there to get them to eat.
Kyrano missed Tin-Tin too. She had gone away to Oxford in England and was studying Engineering and advanced mathematical theories. Jeff had encouraged her to follow that path owing to her extreme intelligence. I had the feeling he had plans for that young woman in his business.
With all of the children gone, Kyrano and I became very good friends. We needed to be. We never saw my son and Brains for more than an hour a day and there was no-one else to talk to out here in the middle of nowhere.
Over the months that followed, there were masses of craft parts shipped in to the island from Tracy Enterprises. Jeff had excavators working until all hours of the night gouging out parts of the mountainside and stabilizing the earth underneath. His Engineering background and aerospace excellence in NASA and his flying expertise from the Air Force and his entrepreneurial skills stood him in good stead as he worked with Brains in what could only be termed as a frenzy over that three year period.
Finally Jeff revealed to us his plans for the future.
He had acquired billions of dollars in business and he wanted to give something back to the world that had given him so much. He showed me the Thunderbird craft he and Brains had worked on. He confided in me that his five sons had agreed to man the craft. Scott was leaving the Air Force to return home to be his Chief pilot, Virgil was prepared to pilot his major rescue craft, John had resigned from NASA to man the satellite, Gordon was more than happy to leave his boring desk job in WASP to be his aquanaut and his youngest son would pilot into space as his Father had done.
Tin-Tin had agreed to be his Assistant Engineer off siding Albert. I hate calling him Brains. Imagine if you were a bit dull. What would you be called in this house? No Brains?
Jeff Tracy, my son, would head this wonderful organization.
International Rescue had been born and no prouder mother and grandmother could there be in the whole of this universe.
This family had survived and now we would make a difference.
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Author's Note – I hope you like how I have depicted Jeff's life. This is only my interpretation of things but I'd like to think that's how he became the father and leader that is depicted in the show. mcj
***** NEXT CHAPTER – SCOTT – HIS FATHER'S APPRENTICE ****
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Hi it's Josie again. I've just finished peeling the vegetables for dinner and now I'm walking down on the beach. I just love my life here.
I thought I'd have a bit of fun earlier with Kyrano by asking him what's doing tomorrow night. He can't look me in the face long enough to lie to me. To think I still have twenty-four hours of this charade to go.
There'll be one of two outcomes before much longer .One, I'll tell you absolutely everything about this family or two, they will relent and admit the party is on. I might let them off if that happens.
If not you'll know it all.
Well since the last time we talked I guess you've been wondering just how that son of mine ever recovered from what went on in his life during those tough years.
Well the Tracy family breed their young blood tough and they survive almost anything.
Look at my grandsons. You won't get any tougher than those five, risking their lives out there for International Rescue day in and day out. They wouldn't do it if they didn't have the Tracy blood in them, that I'll say, and it was their Father who gave it to them.
Jeff Tracy is the toughest man I know when it comes to survival.
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Stage 6 - The Recovery
I guess it is fair for someone like me to say that when you hit rock bottom it's quite reassuring. Why is that you ask? Well, the way I look at it is this; if you can't go down any further then you have to at least be on the way up again.
That was what happened with Jeff after that dreadful night he broke down. I called his Doctor in and after seeing Jeff, he told me in no uncertain terms that my son had big problems.
Well tell his mother something she didn't already know before she picked up the telephone!
Heck, his wife had just died, he had five little boys to raise, his business was almost bankrupt and he had problems? I couldn't believe it took this man six years of medical school to work that out!
However, I held my tongue long enough to ask the doctor what the options were.
They were simple and to the point.
Jeff needed to be hospitalised to rest as he was exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally. He was a danger to himself and his five little boys in his current state of health and mind. After the fright with Alan, I had to agree.
The Doctor went on further to outline the major steps Jeff would have to take or be made to take to recover.
First and most importantly, he needed grief counselling to learn to deal with his feelings about what had happened to Lucy. I knew he would reluctant to do that. Jeff kept his feelings close to his chest. The Doctor said it was imperative.
While that was happening, the Doctor said he had to stop trying to care for the children on his own despite not wanting any one else to shoulder the burden.
There was no doubt that he had to try and get some sleep and eat properly. Well I'd been trying to tell him if he let me help with the children more he would be able to do that.
The Doctor was alarmed when told about his drinking. He instructed me that Jeff had to cut back or preferably stop all together. I decided that the easiest way would be to just not let it in the house. I reflected later, much to my dismay how hard that was going to be. Not for Jeff but for me.
A Scotch in the evenings was the only way I'd been able to cope with Alan during the last few months. Cups of tea did not help my nerves by the time I had tolerated one of his screaming fits.
I also knew that he had to get his business back on track. I think Lucy must have been messing with my head from where she was up there in heaven, as all of a sudden I started to have all sorts of thoughts about what he could do. It had to be Lucy telling me that he should take the risk with Asia again because what would I know? I had the thought and then just laughed at myself. However, once his health was improving I'd suggest it was time.
Now I was fifty-five when all this happened and I was no spring chicken let me tell you. I had been left in the middle of this crisis and I asked myself how I was going to cope if Jeff wasn't able to.
Well my name is Josie and I decided that my son was going to make it through this. I knew II had to take over everything here while he recovered.
Now I can tell you it wasn't easy doing that.
I knew the contract Jeff had been preparing before he broke down had been important to him. However as I told you before, I know nothing about business but I know Lucy was helping me out. I managed to find the contract and rang the contact number on it. I arranged for its' delivery. I hoped Jeff had put it together right. I didn't have a clue.
I pulled Scott and Virgil together and asked them to help me a lot more with the little ones. Scott willingly took over bathing Gordon and reading to John. Virgil, even though he still had not reached his sixth birthday learned to set and clear the table and kept Alan amused during his long vigils of sleeplessness while I tended the laundry and the cooking. They both tended to John when he lay awake at night crying for Lucy. I feel sometimes that comforting John helped them deal with their own grief a little better as most times all three of them would end up in John's bed holding each other tight and crying together. Those three little boys became very close during that time and they are still close.
I checked Scott's fourth grade homework as I fed Alan late in the evenings. Usually Scott sat on one side of me and Virgil on the other and we would talk about how things were going at school and how their Daddy was feeling and how good it was that he was getting better and would soon be home from the hospital.
I certainly hoped that it would be soon. I was getting pretty run down myself with all of this.
Jeff was allowed out of hospital after three weeks and came home feeling ashamed of how he had let his family down by breaking down as he had. I told him that notion was nonsense. At least it had made him wake up to himself.
He looked a lot better now after having some uninterrupted sleep and some decent food.
He had started grief counselling at the hospital and whilst he didn't talk about Lucy to any of us, he made an effort to deal with his grief the very first day he arrived home.
I wondered what he was doing when he went to the trunk of the car that still had her case in it from nearly four months ago and took it out. I watched him from the hallway as he forced himself to unpack it.
He took out each item of her clothing one at a time and looked at it. He held some to his face to smell her scent again. Others, like the dress she had been wearing when they left the house for the hospital, he held close to his chest as if never wanting to let it go. There was her hairbrush that still had strands of her chestnut hair trapped in it. He removed the hair and wound it around his fingers as he had often done with her curls. There were her personal items that a house full of boys would never need.
That case was his last real connection with her. He put everything back exactly where she kept it and closed the case as if trying to close off that part of his life. He then allowed himself to cry. At least he was finally starting to let his grief out. I didn't interfere with this sad moment and elected to simply shut the door on him. He knew I had seen him but he seemed more comfortable about it now.
After a while, he came out of the room carrying Alan. Alan was wide-awake and simply staring up at his Father, a welcome change from his usual hysteria.
It turned out Jeff had woken him. As he reached into the refrigerator for Alan's bottle, he looked at me embarrassed.
"Mom you saw me just now didn't you?"
"Yes I saw you. "I said.
I didn't have to say anything else and neither did he.
"Thank you Mom." he said.
"For what?"
"For getting me help."
I put my arms out for the baby. He shook his head. I instantly became cross.
"Now Jeff, if I'm going to get you better, you have to let me look after the children."
He continued to shake his head.
"I know that mother but let me give him this please. I need to hold my son after doing what I did just now."
I nodded. Of course he did. He would need to hold that little baby close to his chest in order to comfort himself that Lucy had not died for nothing. For once Alan didn't cry before, during or after his feeding. Had Lucy intervened again? Well I reckon she did. It gave me the chance to talk to him about where this family had to head if it was going to survive.
I sat opposite him and watched him hold Alan as I discussed his problems. He agreed to keep attending the counselling. He didn't think it helped but from what I had seen so far, I convinced him that it had.
He knew he had to dispose of her belongings but he couldn't bring himself to do it... not yet anyway. He didn't want me to do it either so we made an agreement that on the day that Alan walked, we would do it together. He was happy with that.
He agreed to let me tend to the children's needs on the understanding he could intervene when he wanted to. He was adamant and I reluctantly agreed but warned him I would step in if he overdid it. The two of us decided he would look out for the two babies up to ten o'clock each night. I would take over after that so that he could sleep. He agreed that I could go to bed straight after dinner while he and the eldest two boys attended to the clearing up. That usually gave me six hours sleep as well.
I spoke to him about his diet and how his drinking had gotten out of control and he admitted that both had been bad even before Lucy died. It was his only way of coping with the money problems of the Company and his worries about her health.
The two of us then had the final discussion that changed Jeff Tracy's life forever.
ASIA
"Jeff, you won that contract you put together that night you went down."
"I know Mother. Thank you for putting it in for me."
"How much is it worth?"
"Four million dollars."
"Can you get the money up front?"
"Mom you're starting to sound like Lucy."
"I think that I'm speaking for her."
He gave me that look of his. It was the look that Grant had always given me. It meant; don't be ridiculous Josie. I think Jeff was thinking the same thing. He was so like his Father.
"Yeah I could the get the money."
"Is that enough to start the ball rolling again in Asia?"
He sighed.
"Mom I can't. Not with everything that has happened. Lucy didn't want me to expand any further. Not with the boys so small and I've got this little guy now too."
He looked down at Alan and took his tiny hand.
"Well I have no head for business so why am I telling you this? She must be influencing me. I'm just telling you what I'm feeling inside"
He pondered for a while. Lucy had the intuition. She always had. Jeff knew I had none - well no business intuition anyway.
Even he had to wonder if Lucy was speaking to him through me.
"I don't know Mom, " he said unsure. "I've got all the plans drawn up in my Office I suppose. The markets are still there. I guess I could to do it. But it'll be all or nothing."
"Well it's all then. You know I'll help you."
"Mom I'd have to travel a bit. That was what Lucy didn't like last time."
"Jeff. It's all or nothing. I'm telling you Lucy would want you to do it for your sons."
He fell silent then. When he finally stood up to put Alan to bed, I could see his mind ticking over. He could do this. I had sown the seeds in his mind or should I say Lucy had from the dead? Now all I had to do was back him.
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Stage 7 -The Billionaire
Jeff did elect to expand although he waited another month until he had recovered a little more. By using the money from that simple contract I had forwarded for him when he broke down, he had enough floating capital to free up his investments in Asia.
That young man worked tirelessly to build up the company overseas whilst still remaining within the limits of the lifestyle we had agreed upon. He traveled overseas to supervise construction in person and whilst his little boys missed him immensely, we had our lives a bit more in order now.
I have to admit I was pretty tuckered out by all of this but if I had my time over again, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I loved my grandsons more than my own life and they seemed to be starting to accept the fact that their mommy wasn't coming home any more and began looking to me for advice as well as the mothering that they had lost because of her death.
One morning nine-year old Scott awakened me. He had made me breakfast to eat in bed. His Daddy had been away in China at the time. I had had a terrible night with Gordon. He was getting his two-year-old teeth and had cried all night long. Naturally he'd woken Alan who always took every opportunity to be wide awake and naturally complain. As a result I was tired that morning but the sight of that little boy standing there with the tray in his hands chased away any fatigue I felt.
The breakfast was basic; as everything was in our lives while Jeff fought to claw his way back into the business world, but it was beautiful from the toast to the lovingly prepared cup of tea. Scott was a perfectionist even back then.
He told me that he had heard Gordon and Alan crying all night and thought he would make me feel better by making me breakfast. I kissed him and asked him to share the toast with me. He shook his head and sat down quietly next to the bed while I enjoyed it.
"Grandma." he said putting the finished tray on the sideboard. "Can I hug you for a bit?"
I held out my arms to my eldest grandson who asked for very little love of his own, while all the time he gave all that was in him to his brothers. He climbed onto the bed with me and pressed his head to my chest. My arms encircled him and I felt his clasp around my neck. I held him close.
"Grandma." he said after a while. "I miss mommy so much."
He had said very little about Lucy up to now and it was obvious he couldn't keep how he felt inside a secret any longer. Those words were coming from the bottom of a broken nine year old heart and it really made me sad.
I kissed his mop of dark curls and gently rubbed his back.
"I know sweetie." I said softly.
"I wish Daddy was here."
"I know but you understand that Daddy is very busy trying to make life better for you and your little brothers don't you?."
"Yes Grandma but I still wish Daddy was here."
"I know. I wish Daddy was here too."
That God! I was still off side with him for taking Lucy away and moments like this served to remind me how angry I was. It took Gordon's accident for me to ask for his help again but the accident is another story.
Anyway, that's enough about my relationship with God. I'm going to hell anyway to be with Grant so I don't owe God a thing. He certainly hadn't done the Tracy family any favors this past year.
Once the company was in full swing, the stock values rose and Tracy Enterprises was back on the map. Jeff was on the way back up and he knew it. His brilliant business brain was functioning again. He threw all his energies into his endeavors.
I stood quietly in the background raising his children when he wasn't around, and stepping back when he was to allow him to cope with the reality and the changing emotions of being a single Father. He was still raw where Lucy was concerned but he was so focused on his business that he only ever dwelled on it when he was left alone or when one of his sons would say or do something that reminded him of her.
It worried me a lot that he didn't talk to the boys much about their mother. I felt he should be. Maybe he was trying to protect them from the pain he was feeling, but I felt that the moment where Scott had shared his feelings with me should have been between him and his Father.
As Alan approached his first birthday it seemed the despair of the past twelve months was starting to fall behind us.
We were going to make it.
The dreaded day came when the youngest little Tracy son walked, three weeks after his first birthday.
Jeff had promised Lucy he would watch Alan's first steps for her and had stayed home from his work commitments for quite a few days so as not to miss them. Jeff, my son, is a man of his word and keeping his final promise to Lucy was everything to him.
He held out his arms to the little blonde toddler and watched with delight as he walked into them. He picked him up and held him close and I saw Jeff had tears in his eyes. Despite his enjoyment of a precious moment, I was sure he knew before I reminded him that it was time now.
It was time for him to say his final goodbye to Lucy as we had agreed to do all those months ago. Her things needed to be sorted out so he could get on with his life properly.
Now I'm not going to go into what happened that day as I've shed enough tears thinking about those times. Maybe I'll tell you about it some other time, perhaps when I tell you a bit about young Alan but I can tell you, helping pack up that little girl's life with my son and putting the cartons out for disposal was not an easy job.
The years went on and the business grew larger. As my grandsons grew taller and I grew older, our life improved to the point where we were living more than comfortably. We were very wealthy.
However, my five grandsons were still being raised the same as they were before. I would not allow pretentiousness in this house.
Their Daddy was still away from them a lot but he made up for it when he was at home. He loved nothing more than to throw a ball for Alan and Gordon to hit in the back yard, to watch the night stars with Johnny through his telescope, watch Virgil paint and listen to him play the piano and teach Scott the mechanics of flying.
He loved his five sons and so did I. I was proud of them all and especially my own talented and brave son.
For a while I worried he was lonely and tried to talk him about remarrying. He pushed that idea away instantly. He had no plans to ever replace Lucy. She had been his one true love and had changed his life forever. In a way I was glad. They had loved each other so completely. As long as Jeff wasn't lonely and happy in his life I was satisfied.
But he had outgrown Boston now, particularly the modest house he and Lucy had built together and it was time to move on. We moved to New York where Jeff had his Offices. This allowed him to be home more often as his elder boys were now well into their teens and needed his guidance.
They were good boys but let me say Scott and Virgil Tracy certainly had developed an eye for the young ladies and kept bringing a different one home every day after school for me to meet. Scott was nearly seventeen and had grown into an extremely good looking young man. Virgil was only fourteen, but his chestnut hair and the beautiful smile that was Lucy's made him irresistible to his female classmates.
I was worrying after them already. I still remembered the close call Jeff had had at sixteen behind the shed at the church function.
It worried me then that with all his work commitments whether Jeff had spoken to the boys about... Well you know what I'm talking about.
The house we purchased In New York was wonderful and very large. It cost Jeff a fortune but money no longer mattered to him. He was now a billionaire. In nine years he had gone from near nothing to having it all.
I felt very satisfied that I had helped him get there in my own way.
And then what do you think he does to repay me? On my sixty-fourth birthday he tells me he has something to tell me.
That Jeff! He had an ulterior motive when he purchased that huge house and I was too caught up with my grandsons to realize it.
He had decided it was time I retired from the kitchen and started to enjoy my life. He introduced me to his friend Kyrano, a quiet Asian man who had been a Chef at the Paris Hilton. He and his nine year daughter Tin-Tin were moving in with us it seemed.
Jeff had asked Kyrano to come to America to take over the domestic duties from me and in return he would sponsor Tin-Tin's education.
Well happy birthday Josie! No wonder I'm annoyed about this party thing. I was furious with Jeff. Who did he think he was? I wasn't ready for the scrap heap!
I still swam most days of the week at the local pool and could play baseball with Gordon and Alan without disgracing myself too much. I didn't wear grandma clothes or sit in a rocking chair with my slippers on all day. Hell I could probably teach him a thing or too about stamina.
I suppose you can imagine that I refused to give up my kitchen to Kyrano and the two of us really didn't get off to a good start. Nevertheless we ended up making an uneasy truce and established what our roles were going to be. I hate to admit when Jeff's right but it did give me time to get out a bit more.
OK Jeff I do admit it. I did appreciate being able to do things for myself again.
I also enjoyed having a little girl in the house. She was a sweetie and very shy. That youngest grandson of mine struck up a friendship with her quite early in the piece as they were the same age and as you know, that is still going on. Well more than that's going on I can tell you. But I'll tell you about all of that later.
I had a feeling that Jeff had more plans in his head when all of a sudden he announced he had purchased an island in the South Pacific and was constructing a villa. We were going to spend all the boys' vacations there and he informed me that once Alan and Tin-Tin had finished High school we would be leaving New York and the island was to be our permanent home. He would travel to New York for business when he had to.
I couldn't believe it. I was from Kansas and definitely no beach baby. Kyrano didn't even like water and Jeff wanted us to be all alone out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?
I hoped he wasn't going eccentric on me after all these years of common sense.
"Relax Mother." he had laughed. "There's good reason for what I am doing."
Well he didn't elaborate and I didn't ask him. Wherever Jeff wanted to go I was happy to pack up my life and go with him.
As I said, we have been through a lot together.
Stage 8 - The Founder of International Rescue
Well the little Tracy boys who were left to grow up without their Mother became the Tracy men, each of them with different looks and personality but all five of them were strong, tall and handsome. Lucille would have been proud of her boys and proud of how Jeff had brought them up.
By the way and just for the record, Jeff assured me he had talked to each of the boys about his moral and social expectations of them. His morals and expectations were the same as those Grant had given him; however Jeff differed from Grant in that he wanted his sons to follow their own dreams.
Scott joined the Air Force and like Jeff he proved himself to be a born leader, excelling at the academy. I still think a lot of Scott's leadership qualities came from looking after his little brothers in that sad time all those years ago.
Virgil went to College in Denver and my little Johnny excelled at Harvard.
Gordon enlisted in WASP and Alan reluctantly went to College in Colorado. Young Alan was still giving us trouble and it wasn't with screaming fits these days. He just had tantrums now and a frightful temper into the bargain. He was so like Grant!
Now that the boys were away, Jeff began to put the plans he had kept so close to his chest into operation.
A young Engineer named Albert Hackenbacker came to live with us. He was a brilliant young man, the same age as John but with a terrible shyness and a bad stutter. He was the one I told you about before. So brilliant he can't get anything out of his mouth. If only he'd slow down!
Jeff and Albert (or Brains as Jeff called him) spent months in his study, poring over designs and testing aircraft. Kyrano and I had to just about drag them out of there to get them to eat.
Kyrano missed Tin-Tin too. She had gone away to Oxford in England and was studying Engineering and advanced mathematical theories. Jeff had encouraged her to follow that path owing to her extreme intelligence. I had the feeling he had plans for that young woman in his business.
With all of the children gone, Kyrano and I became very good friends. We needed to be. We never saw my son and Brains for more than an hour a day and there was no-one else to talk to out here in the middle of nowhere.
Over the months that followed, there were masses of craft parts shipped in to the island from Tracy Enterprises. Jeff had excavators working until all hours of the night gouging out parts of the mountainside and stabilizing the earth underneath. His Engineering background and aerospace excellence in NASA and his flying expertise from the Air Force and his entrepreneurial skills stood him in good stead as he worked with Brains in what could only be termed as a frenzy over that three year period.
Finally Jeff revealed to us his plans for the future.
He had acquired billions of dollars in business and he wanted to give something back to the world that had given him so much. He showed me the Thunderbird craft he and Brains had worked on. He confided in me that his five sons had agreed to man the craft. Scott was leaving the Air Force to return home to be his Chief pilot, Virgil was prepared to pilot his major rescue craft, John had resigned from NASA to man the satellite, Gordon was more than happy to leave his boring desk job in WASP to be his aquanaut and his youngest son would pilot into space as his Father had done.
Tin-Tin had agreed to be his Assistant Engineer off siding Albert. I hate calling him Brains. Imagine if you were a bit dull. What would you be called in this house? No Brains?
Jeff Tracy, my son, would head this wonderful organization.
International Rescue had been born and no prouder mother and grandmother could there be in the whole of this universe.
This family had survived and now we would make a difference.
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Author's Note – I hope you like how I have depicted Jeff's life. This is only my interpretation of things but I'd like to think that's how he became the father and leader that is depicted in the show. mcj
***** NEXT CHAPTER – SCOTT – HIS FATHER'S APPRENTICE ****
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