OPEN DOOR

In the not too distant past, the west coast of the United States represented the country's final frontier. Shortly after the Second World War, when the victorious armed forces returned from overseas, the hordes of humanity began to descend on California with Los Angeles becoming a major destination point. The "Boys" had witnessed the many delights of "The Golden State" while waiting to be shipped out to the Pacific Theater. California represented a new adventurous land ripe with opportunity. It was a veritable paradise, filled with the dreams of a bright future, for those who wished to venture there and settle.

Edward Bonnet was one of those conquering heroes who decided to settle in California after the war. He knocked around for a few years working at a variety of jobs from picking oranges to house construction. One day, his application for employment was accepted at the telephone company and he began his tenure of service there. Ed had experience with telecommunications. He fulfilled the role of radio operator during the war. The heavy piece of equipment had crushed a vertebra in his lower back and ruined his knees. He rarely complained about his pain and, like the patriotic American he was, felt that it was a small price to pay in service to his country. Suffice it to say, he was looking forward to a desk job with the telephone company.

Once secure in his new job, Ed married his sweetheart, Esther. They purchased a quaint house up in the hills overlooking the San Fernando Valley. The newlyweds began the important business of starting a family and, a short time later, Esther gave birth to a daughter who was to be their only child.

Ed remained with the telephone company for thirty years, in his secure position, which paid him well, while Esther carried on the time honored tradition as a homemaker. Toward the end of his tenure with the company, Ed began to loathe the tediousness of his routine job, nevertheless, he continued to draw his salary, be pleasant to his co-workers and count the days to his long awaited retirement and pension.

The happy day finally arrived and Ed retired to bask in the warmth of his hard-earned golden years. For the past decade, it had been his routine to go out early every morning and walk the family dog. It was really Esther's dog. Ed was never exactly sure what kind of dog it was. "Poopsie" was a mongrel-pug mix and had a severe under bite which gave the small animal a perpetual look of savagery  Ed felt no affection for "Poopsie  nor were there any feelings of affection reciprocated by the animal toward him. In fact, the dog seemed to derive a great perverse pleasure in demon­strating its disdain for Ed in a variety of imaginative ways.

Ed enjoyed the simple pleasures of life. One of which was to take in the cool, crisp, early morning air with the hated "mutt" by his side. They were poised at their favorite lookout and gazing across at the rolling hills, which were enveloped in a tenuous mist. It was on this morning that Ed had his stroke and fatal heart attack. What had caused it and who could really say? Perhaps, it was caused by his excessive indulgence in one of his few pleasures, eating. His doctor had repeatedly admonished him regarding the dangers of his diet. Perhaps, what had caused the fatal stroke was his sudden outburst of anger when "Poopsie" had elected that morning to demonstrate its disdain toward Ed by urinating on his shoe. Or perhaps, the Creator had another mission for him, in the Great Beyond, and determined that morning to call "Big Ed" home. His untimely departure from this world was one of those strange ironies of life for Ed had died before he could collect his first pension check.

Esther took Ed's death pretty hard. "Poopsie" was the bene­ficiary of her feelings of grief and great loss. There was a "nice" funeral at Forest Lawn cemetery. Their daughter, who had been living back East for several years, came out to California to be by her mother's side during this trying time.

She now found herself to be in an unaccustomed situation since Esther had always depended upon Ed to be there to take care of things  Fortunately she had had the foresight to have her husband enroll in the company's life insurance plan so that dead Ed could rest peacefully in the knowledge that he had fulfilled his patriarchal responsibility to the family and they would be provided for.

Shortly after Ed's demise, Esther^’s grief was substantially ameliorated when she was presented with a check for, to her, a great deal of money.  'Oh, my! What to do? The bank could probably be of some help.' Her bank now had financial planners who could offer suggestions and investment strategy. When she had told them her present situation, they were only too happy to be of assistance. They advised a plan that would "provide a safe, prudent and federally insured program which offers both comfort and security Her bank soon had Ed's life insurance check transferred into Certi­ficates of Deposit, "at a very competitive rate of interest", which were spread out evenly in varying amounts and time periods with the accruing interest being automatically deposited into her checking account. The alacrity of the bank's personnel had assured Esther that they were "some of the nicest people one could be blessed with". With careful budgeting, she could now live off the interest while still preserving the principle nest egg.