As a Canadian boutique owner, you may be surprised to learn I spent a month living in a place very different than most Canadian cities, no other than the City of Waco, TX. Why was I visiting Waco of all cities, and why was I there for so long? This is what I’m, excited to share, because it’s very good news!

I wasn’t all that eager to go to Waco, but my son has been living in Texas for several years and he wasn’t doing too well financially. In fact he had been living in his car for two weeks, parking in random streets to sleep at night. So I looked at my savings account and decided to take a plane to Waco to help him. We stayed at a cheap motel while I helped him look for work. He was really ashamed to have a parent come to his aid, all the way from Canada no less, because he’s 34-years-old. But I told him there’s no shame in asking for help. It was actually kind of nice, staying in the motel together and job searching on the laptop. It’s been a while since we’d spent so much time together.

We got rather lucky off the bat, booking several job interviews on the first day of my visit. My son was shocked at how easy it could be if you sat down and focused. But the job interviews didn’t pan out, and he began to lose hope again, saying we were just wasting time. I told him the parable of the gold miner who was an inch away from finding gold before he gave up, and then we renewed our job search with renewed vigor.

Finally, we got him a job interview that panned out, with a company called Appliance Repair Waco. I waited outside in the car while he went in for the job interview, and I’ll never forget the look on his face when he came back to the car with a giant smile. He was smiling like he had just won the lottery. That night we celebrated, for the guys at Appliance Repair Waco told him there was a good chance he’d get the job, but they’d call in the morning to confirm. So we partied in our little motel room with our fingers crossed. I was so proud of my son next morning when we got the call and discovered he’d been accepted for the job!

Now, I’m back in Canada, working at my boutique, glad to know my son has a decent-paying and steady job with one of the top appliance repair companies in Waco. He didn’t have much experience in fixing appliances, but the company was looking for someone they could train and would stick around for a longtime. Now, my son is well trained in the art of repairing broken appliances and says he loves his job and the people he works with.

Reflecting on all this, I’m so glad I took the trip to Waco. It’s a city that you won’t find on any top destination lists for travelers, but it’s a quant city that brought me many nice memories, and I’m already planning to visit again later this year.