W: The Planner, The Chosen by Alexandra Swann, Joyce Swann

design. Although she had no formal training in design, she had a great eye, and she kept up with each season’s trends.  She staged all of the model homes, and she did design work for the buyers in Jim’s subdivisions.  She also did interior design work for friends, and she donated her considerable talents to the church when they decided to update their building. She got up early each morning and worked all day, and even now, at sixty-five, Janine still did her own housework. She said that a maid could not be trusted to do a job that met her standards. She had worked full time for over forty-five years while raising a family, and she had served a home cooked meal every night. Kris wondered sometimes how she had managed to do it and how she had managed to survive forty-five years with Jim with her wits intact.
    Kris admired her mother as much as she loved her.  Janine had always tried hard to make their lives happy—even during the times that were the most difficult.  When Kris was a teenager, Jim was in a development deal that went south.  Jim was sued, lost the suit and ended up with a huge judgment against him which resulted in the loss of their home to foreclosure. Kris always remembered the sound of her mother’s sobs when they received the notice that the judge had ordered the house sold, but she also remembered how Janine had told the children that a house is nothing more than a place full of things. Janine had told them that it is foolish to grieve over possessions because the world is full of so much that is wonderful that when one item is gone, something else even more wonderful is waiting to replace it.  And then she told them that losing the house was just a temporary setback—in a few years they would have a new house so beautiful that they would not even want to remember the one they were leaving. That final prediction actually turned out to be true—five years later Jim had completely recovered financially, and whether to show off for those who knew about the lawsuit and the judgment or to make it up to Janine for the loss of her home and everything else she had tolerated—and as Kris got older she always wondered which of those it really was—Jim had built Janine her dream home.  Every room had been designed to be both opulent and functional—from the luxurious yet tasteful master suite with the Italian marble bath featuring heated floors, the jetted tub and the walk-in shower that massaged the user with warm jets of water from every direction, to the great room with twenty-one foot ceilings, to the home theatre with black and white movie posters, every inch of the Mitchell home said, “We’ve survived!”
    Now as Kris approached the house she thought about how much it had meant to her mother. She still remembered clearly the day that her dad had shown it to the family. She remembered the look of pure joy on Janine’s face—Kris had been so happy for her that day. Kris had already left for college, but when she came home for holidays they had a room for her there. She had lived there only once—for three months after graduation when she had moved in while she made the ill-fated decision to work for her dad as a builder’s rep while she was getting her real estate license. Until very recently that had been the unhappiest time of her adult life—she had worked long days, weekends, even the Fourth of July sitting in model houses at the residential development Jim was building. Model house sitting is boring, tedious work, but Kris was a good saleswoman, and when potential buyers did come through, she was quick to show them all the bells and whistles of each home. The houses were aesthetically pleasing—Jim designed them and Janine staged all the models—and they were priced just right for the “move up” couple who was selling their starter home and moving into a roomier home with more amenities. Jim had a good reputation, and he stood behind his work. He was also a tough boss, however,