Should Money Really Matter?

I was inspired to write this today by David W. Boles, at Urban Semiotic . One of today's articles is titled, "10 Million is Beneath 50 Million."

In the early nineties, I dated a woman for many years who came from a wealthy family. I mean very wealthy. Her parents were divorced and remarried. Her father is a cardiologist and owns thousands of acres of citrus groves. Her mother is married to a man who owned car dealerships. He grew up with the Ford family. They live in Isleworth Country Club, home to Tiger Woods, Shaq and other celebrities. Gold faucets set in ornate porcelain sinks are in all the bathrooms. The master bath is the size of a small house.

When I entered her life, she was aware of my financial situation and it did not matter to her. I mean, I wasn't by any means broke, but, no way did I come close to what her family was worth. The first time I met her mother was for dinner at her multi-million dollar home. We ate lobster tails that were brought up from the deep. Natives would dive off her yacht somewhere in the Caribbean and bring up the crustaceans. Needless to say, we didn’t dip them in Squeeze Parkay. Her father would go to his ranch every afternoon to tend to the groves. He was a very hard worker and not afraid to get his hands dirty. He had his main house, the ranch house, an oceanfront house just south of St. Augustine, and his other ranch house in south Florida. There, you could see nothing but tomato plants as far as the eye can see, and that’s not counting his citrus trees down there, too.

As we got closer, her parents treated me like a son. There never was a monetary barrier between me and her family. They felt if their daughter was happy, then that is what mattered. I was very good to her daughter as well. She was around ten when we met. I helped her with her homework and other family chores. I loved it. Her father never factored into the equation, so, I was about as close as you could get. These were her formulative years and I tried to do the best job ever as a sort of surrogate parent. I never cared about her family’s wealth. It was only her and her daughter who mattered.

Alas, after a long relationship, things soured. Of course, I missed some of the amenities, but, they were nothing compared to the loves I lost. I dropped from 200 lbs. to 140 lbs. in three months flat. I got over Ms. X a long time ago, but I still love her daughter. Unfortunately, that had to go by the wayside, as Ms. X went on to other relationships. I would love to run into her one day. She is now in her mid-twenties. Heck, I’d even treat her to lunch.