My Parents Threw Me Out on Christmas Then the Bank Saw Grandpa’s Box

I was thirty-four that Christmas.

Six months earlier, the marketing agency where I had worked for almost eight years collapsed after losing two major clients and defaulting on a line of credit.

The company disappeared in less than a month.

So did my salary.

Since then, I had been freelancing from a small apartment in Wintermere, taking whatever brand-strategy and communications work I could find while rebuilding my savings.