In the oil and gas sector, Ray was developing software for fire and gas safety systems and commissioning it offshore.
Until our lovely granddaughter Molly arrived in January 2007, that is.
Jenna, Molly's mother, was eager to get back to work, so she started looking for a good nursery.
Opening our own children's nursery was a fantastic idea, but not just any nursery.
It was discovered that the old school was ideal.
We finished the acquisition in April 2008, and the building, which has been educating kids since 1873, is full with personality and history.
It couldn't have been better—no upper levels, almost an acre of outside area for playing.
Ray was required offshore, leaving Jenna and I to begin the project.
The area had been allowed to become a wilderness.
After some debate, we decided on a narrow area to focus on and carried it out.
Everyone pitched in to assist, including our son David, Jenna's friends, our friends, and anybody else we could find.
The Day Nursery officially opened its doors on Monday, September 1, 2008, five months and a lot of favours later.
But as soon as news got out, more kids joined.
David joined us in the beginning as our cook, and our first practitioners all worked for free.
It hasn't been a fairy tale voyage thus far.
There have been incredibly difficult times when it appeared that no matter how hard we tried, everything was against us, and the effort was, quite frankly, not worth it.
The incorrect persons joined the team as a result of mistakes made during the hiring process.
It became apparent right away that the Day Nursery staff is its greatest asset.
Today's recruitment is considerably stronger, and we keep making investments to raise the quality of our services.
We are still developing an excellence centre, and our focus has never altered.
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