For the first time in my adult life, I had money that was mine, tied to work that was mine, that no one could call a “cute hobby.”
I could have retired on it.
Instead, at fifty-one, I did the most reckless, wonderful thing I’ve ever done.
I started a company.
Not to compete with Gerald.
Something new — a small software studio that builds free inventory tools for food banks and community pantries, the places that run on nothing and need good logistics the most.
I called it Second Winter.
Because the first winter, I wrote an engine and gave it away to a man who forgot to credit me.
The second winter, I wrote one for people who’d actually say thank you.
I hired four people in the first year.
Two of them were women over fifty re-entering tech after raising families — women who’d been told, in one way or another, that they’d let themselves go.
