I had several investors lined up to buy into the operation, when the rules were published by the IRS. The feature that torpedoed our plans, was the at risk rules and passive activity losses of the Act. Investors, such as doctors and lawyers, etc. not actively engaged in the operation were not allowed to take losses into their personal income tax and offset the income from these losses. This made our offering unattractive from an investor viewpoint and the professionals didn't want to be active in the business, so they could qualify. We managed to continue our operation, but at tremendous expense in time and financial resources.

The arrival of our first born in September was overshadowed by the death of my father in October of 1987. With the arrival of Jose our joy was complete. Rita and I became more involved in our church. Our bundle of joy wrapped in a snowmobile suit, his body covered from head to toe, would accompany us on Wednesday to choir practice. We sang in the Choir on Sunday morning and attended evening services. Jose was baptized in the Spring of 1988 and life was again good for us.

Just when we thought we had turned the corner, disaster struck. We awoke one night to the sound of Jose's coughing. We then noticed his stomach rapidly going in an out, as if he was in distress. We immediately bundled him up and headed out the door to the nearest hospital. We arrived at Sparrow hospital and the medic on duty immediately administered oxygen and rushed him into the emergency ward. We later found out that it was an asthma attack and had we not got him to the hospital we probably would have lost him.

From then on it became a constant vigil. The doctors put him on a treatment plan that required treatments every 4 to 6 hours with a machine. From 1988 to 1991 we were in an out of the emergency room and the isolation ward. In between we found out through our own research that the illness was related to the allergens in the Farm. He was allergic to horses, mold, hay and just about everything else around him. We sold everything for whatever we could get and moved to an apartment in town.

Despite this move the asthma continued and actually got worse. Out of desperation I asked the doctors in August of 1991, what they suggested, the immediate response was move to a drier climate. The asthama was also climate related.
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Good morning Tom.

We gave little Joe his breathing treatment and put him to bed. Within 30 minutes we heard him coughing again and it wouldn't stop. We waited about an hour and gave him another treatment. It seemed to help and he fell asleep. We were just dozing off when he heard him coughing again. This time, we noticed his coloration and his stomach pulsating. We knew the signs, so we picked him up and rushed him to the hospital for the fourth time this year.

This was September of 1991. The doctor met us at Sparrow and that is when he told us that we needed to do something. If we continued this way, we might lose him. We asked where we could go and he suggested three cities. All of them in the West: Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Tucson. I knew from prior inquiries that none of the states where the cities were located, would permit me to practice without taking the bar exam and this would take about a year. In the meantime, I needed a job and I needed it fast.

The first thought that came to my mind was Merrill Lynch. They have offices nationwide and I still knew the business. I went to the lobby and called Merrill in New York. The receptionist picked up the phone and as soon as I explained why I was calling, she transferred me to the employee locator section. Within minutes the operator transferred me to my former boss, John Carreta. He was the manager of the Cincinnati office. I told John my predicament and he asked me one question, "Where do you want to go?" I told him my options and he again asked me, in a more emphatic voice, " Where do you want to go? My reply was immediate, "Tucson". He got my number at the hospital and about an hour later called me with the name of the manager of the Tucson office. I called him the next morning and two days later, I was on a plane to Tucson.

It was a gorgeous day when I arrived in Tucson. The sun was bright, the air clean and the surrounding mountains were beautiful. I made a mental note to accept whatever they offered me. My interview was brief and before I left, I had an offer to take back and discuss with Rita. I flew back to Lansing and gave Rita the good news.

Starting Over

Prior to leaving Tucson, I had leased a townhouse on the Eastside. This would be our home for the next 14 months. It was small but comfortable and the best part was the swimming pool and spa in the center of the complex. The boys took to the pool like ducks to water. It had to be obvious to our neighbors that we were new to Tucson. We were the only ones in the pool. Only a person coming from Michigan in the middle of winter, would find 60 degree weather suitable for swimming.

Once settled in, we began the process of rebuilding. We were down but not out. Our faith and love sustained us during these troubled times. We saw this as an opportunity to rebuild and we went full steam ahead with the task at hand. Rita went back to Michigan to complete the job of selling our assets. The night she left, I had my first experience with the emergency ward at El Dorado Hospital. I was awakened in the middle of the night by a roaring sound coming from the boy's room. I was ready to grab Joe and take him to the hospital, when I noticed that it was Christopher not Joe that was having breathing problems. I called 911 and by the time the medics arrived I had given Christopher a breathing treatment and had matters in control. The medics took us to the hospital anyway and the doctor told us it was croup and not asthma, but my instincts paid off and I did the right thing. I spent the rest of the day in the hospital and took a taxi home with my boys.

During this hospital stay I met the doctor that would take care of our boys from this day forward. Dr. Calley, a pediatric surgeon became our boys physician and with his help Joe was weaned off the asthama medication. Joe is now 16 and running track in High School and is an assistant coach for the football team. Moving to Tucson was the best decision I have ever made. Not only did it save our boy but it also was good for our economic health.

next and last episode
God restores our healh and wealth.

In God we trust.

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God's plan not mine

I learned two valuable lessons during this time of trial and tribulation. Lesson number one: family is more important than money. Lesson number two: God has a plan for your life. I easily bought into the first one, the second was a little more difficult to accept. If God had a plan for my life then whatever I did, didn't matter. I had started to read the bible on a daily basis and I had heard about Job and his troubles, so naturally I started with the book of Job in the Old Testament.

Like Job, I presented my case to God. I wanted to know what I had done to deserve this. Had I not been faithful? Had I not fed the poor, helped the needy, honored my father and mother? I came out of this with a better understanding of Who God is and yes how throughout all these troubles He had carried us. As I learned more I become more upwardly focused and less earth bound. From the book of Proverbs came my greatest insight. " To have knowledge, you must first have reverence for the Lord." Prov 1:7.

This realignment with God's will and my willingness to obey has more than enriched me. I have found new life in Tucson, despite the early troubles associated with Merrill Lynch. The job with Merrill turned out to be short-lived. When I returned to work in early January I found myself with a new boss. He was a new-breed manager, the sort whose ambitions and goals depend on crunching numbers and in the process individuals with integrity. The attitude of production without ethics, did not sit well with me and by March l, I started lookiing for work. Tucson is a small town and when this information got back to him, I was fired.

I sent out resumes to law firms and brokerage houses and within 2 weeks I had a job with John Hancock Insurance. Rita went to work for the City attorney's office as a paralegal. Then we both got a break. I met a mortgage broker at a mixer for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and when I told him about Rita's background, he gave me his business card and asked me to have Rita call him. She called the next day and by Friday she quit the city and went back to doing mortgages.

One of my resumes came across the desk of a Phoenix brokerage house and they called me for an interview. They hired me on the spot as a senior vice president of the company with a small salary and commission structure. I convinced them to open a Tucson office and started recruiting in Tucson for stockbrokers. Three months later I was managing the Tucson office and taking business away from my former boss. I knew then we were on the road back to recovery. We never looked back and within a year we witnessed the mother of all miracles.

We received a letter from the manager of the condos, that our condo was needed by it's owner who was moving from Puerto Rico and that we had to vacate by March lst. We had intended to buy a house in June or July, when our lease expired and had enough money saved for downpayment. We had been looking at homes on the East and Northeast side of Tucson. These were the areas with the best homes and best schools. It now became urgent that we find a home and we had less than two months to accomplish this feat. We had less than 3000 in savings and what credit we had was bad. We needed a special situation, which is called a no-qualifying loan in the mortgage business. We also needed a seller willing to do a seller carryback and it had to be a home with a payment we could afford.

We found such a seller and home on a Sunday afternoon in early February. The only problem was the downpayment. We knew we had some money coming from our work and even after the seller was willing to take a 5 year note in the amount of $30,000.00, we were still short $25,000 to assume the underlying mortgage. We made the offer and prayed every day and night for the next 30 days. This is where God took over.

The week after we made the offer, Rita received a call from a local bank. They offered her a signing bonus of $5000.00 if she would go to work for them as a loan officer. Her present contract called for forfeiture of commissions on loans not closed before she left and she was counting on these commissions to pay part of the downpayment. She went to work closing every loan in her pipeline and in two weeks closed 10 loans, which put her into the bonus category. Her paycheck the last week of February was a little over $18,000.00 and after taxes, she cleared $13,000.00. She left the following week and her new employer, true to his word gave her the bonus upfront. By the date of closing we were still short almost $8,000.00 and her boss advanced her $5000.00. One of my clients gave me $1500 on a 90 day note and the realtor took a $3000.00 note for his commission, which we paid on time.