The Christmas List

“Your father went back to work with a vengeance. He started working seven days a week, staying late every night. It took him almost three years to pay off the debt those men left us, but he did it. Only when he finished he wasn’t the same man. He was stronger and smarter but he was angry.”
“I’d be angry too,” Jimmy said.
“Anyone would. The problem is, his anger wasn’t really about those men. It was about himself. He hated himself for being so trusting and naive and letting them walk all over him. And that’s a more dangerous type of anger. It changed the way he saw everything and everyone because it had changed the way he saw himself.”

“The development failed and his partners left him holding the bag. The creditors came after us. They put liens against our home; they harangued us day and night. His so-called partners made sure that he had signed on everything. While they skipped on to the next deal, we lost everything we had built up, including our home. Those were awful days. Dad was depressed. He started second-guessing everything he did. He asked my advice on the smallest of decisions. It was as if he’d completely lost faith in himself. Those men had broken his spirit.”