Both of us were standing in the middle of the family room with tears in our eyup as all of us stared at the gas fireplace.
If any person walked in and found numerous grown adults crying staring at the fire, they would have thought that all of us had received some devastating news.
But no, they were tears of joy. Both of us had made a promise to each other back when all of us lived in foster care that all of us would 1 afternoon own our own house. Both of us never had a locale all of us could call home. Both of us were well aware of how long a evening could be living in a house without any form of whole-house gas furnace. In the orphanage where all of us lived for most of our lives, the boiler upgrade consistently seemed to have a problem. For most months, it did not toil properly. The HVAC repairman was forever dealing with 1 concern or the other. If it was not in the ductwork, it was the gas oil furnace. There was barely enough cash for food, so some things such as the oil furnace/heater upgrade and duct cleaning were the last things on the mile-long list. If 1 saw the house services truck, you knew something deathly extreme had gone wrong. Washing the washable filter and sealing any opening on the air duct were mainly carried out by the older children. Following the energy-saving help, tips were a survival tactic. Every once in a while, the local heating provider would offer free services. I still remember when the heating corp and some well-wishers contributed enough cash to get us a new HVAC. That was the warmest Wintertide any of us had experienced.