My sister was always interested in how people got together. One afternoon, I heard her talking to mom, and she asked how they got together. She told her to talk to dad because he told the story better than she did. Dad told us he met mom at a company picnic, but I was wondering if there wasn’t more to the story than that. When she said something to dad at dinner, he told her about the company picnic again. Mom was smiling, and she said she was there when he arrived, and he wouldn’t stay away from her. Dad said it was her that wouldn’t stay away. She kept asking him about the HVAC company he worked for. Mom said she wanted to know if it was a good company to work for, but not because she wanted a new job. Mom said she loved working for grandpa and had no intention of leaving. My head swiveled so quickly, I thought I was going to snap a vertebrae. It suddenly hit me that Grandpa owned an HVAC company when he was younger. Mom smiled and nodded, and I laughed. I never knew my mom was an HVAC technician, and it took my sister’s silly prattle to find out. I asked why she had said nothing. She told me she quit working when I was born, and she never looked back. She met my dad when she was working as an HVAC technician and she wouldn’t change a thing. I had a new level of appreciation for my mom and how she had gotten where she was. She had a lot of secrets I couldn’t wait to ferret out.