MacKenzie's Crossroads

His fiancée gone, a heartbroken man searches for love again as he weathers parental, career, and financial setbacks during hard times.

The early months of 1970 leave in their wake an array of indelible memories for single parent, Colin (Mac) MacKenzie. All of them painful. In March, he sees his younger son confined for treatment following a nearly fatal OD. Two months later, he loses a blue-chip management job as a result of restructuring. Then, on the first day of summer, he’s bedside when his fiancée dies of leukemia. What’s next, he wonders? The story opens as the second half of the year begins. With the string of agonizing events behind him, Mac feels as if his life is starting over at forty. Resolute, he lends continuing support to his wayward son while beginning the process of searching for a new job—and that special woman who'll one day replace his late Daniela. In time, Mac's older son finds trouble of his own and is a factor in the mounting financial difficulties that have begun to stalk the MacKenzie family. As the summer wears on, and out of employment options, Mac joins an executive search firm. Unfortunately, paydays are sporadic and what money he earns does little to ease his burdens. Then, adding to his woes, his lease is cancelled, and he has no choice but to move from the home in Connecticut that has been the centerpiece of so many pleasant memories. All the while, there are courtships. Among them are Megan, and Rachel, and a caring liaison with Celia, a local woman who helps Mac endure the most difficult time he’s ever known. But it isn't until he makes a radical career change, and moves to rural New England, that an affable young schoolteacher, Amy Shaw, comes into his life and turns his head. In the end, Mac rebounds from his financial reversals, finds professional fulfillment, and knows happiness once again when his sons exhibit signs of becoming responsible adults and Amy is the woman at his personal crossroads. MacKenzie's Crossroads is set in New York City and suburban Connecticut—then later on in central New England—as the decade of the seventies begins. It recounts the life, and times, and loves of Mac MacKenzie. What unfolds is a fictional tale about ordinary people, but the story line is the byproduct of a unique juxtaposition of people, events, and places with which I became familiar over a period of fifty-plus years. And of some importance, perhaps, is that care has been taken to preserve historical accuracy so that the narrative is an authentic picture of life during the years in which it is set.

The author was born into the twentieth century’s Great Depression and raised on a small midwestern farm. After high school, he served on a minesweeper during the Korean Conflict before graduating from the Indiana University School of Business. He then began a long professional career, one that started with his having worked for the company in Downey, California that built the Apollo spacecraft. In the late sixties, he moved to suburban Connecticut and made a daily commute into New York where he had management responsibilities with major companies. By the mid-seventies, he’d settled in rural New England and changed careers. Nearly a decade later, he relocated to south Texas and served as an officer in the largest privately held bank in the state. He and his educator wife, Sandra, then emigrated to Europe in 1986 and lived in both Spain and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. They've now returned to the U.S. and live in south Texas