We enjoyed living in the house on Maple Street. The Shell station was considerably closer than the Texaco had been, which made the long hours more manageable. Jana and Milan married and took the master bedroom. I married Jeanne, which made my mother very happy. When I went to the immigration office in Boston to obtain my citizenship it was the first time I had ever been treated pleasantly there — the employees were kind and welcoming, as opposed to every previous experience I had in that building.

Life in the house was full but not always easy. The 5 of us — Jeanne, Alan, my mother, Jana, and Milan — were sharing a small space, and the differences in household habits created friction. Jeanne’s approach to cleaning up after meals was relaxed; she would leave the kitchen counter full of dishes and clean everything later in one go. My mother and Jana were the opposite — everything had to be cleaned, straightened, and put away immediately. Each side came to me separately to complain, expecting me to intervene with the other. I spent a good deal of time explaining each person’s position to the other, trying to help them understand that no one was acting out of spite. It slowly became too much. Jana and Milan eventually found their own apartment and moved out, and my mother went with them since she felt Jana needed her more. After that Jeanne and I moved from the cellar bedroom to the master bedroom and things became considerably more comfortable.

The separation was not without turbulence. Jana consulted a lawyer about claiming half of the house appreciation, since she had been contributing to the mortgage payments. I put a stop to that. After everything Jeanne had done for me and my family, the idea that Jana would make a demand that would require us to sell the house to pay her was something I could not accept. It was a difficult moment between us, but it passed. With the help of Jeanne’s generous personality the relationship with Jana recovered, and within a year Jana and Milan had bought their own house in Holliston, started a family, built a swimming pool, and eventually moved to a larger house in Sherborn and built another one.

Alan’s situation during those years required its own navigation, and I tried to handle it with care since he was not my son. Jeanne followed Dr. Spock’s approach to raising children, which was the prevailing philosophy of the time. The relationship between Alan and his father Geoffrey remained strong and active, and I stayed in my own lane as best I could. I did go to Alan’s school once to give a talk about life in a communist country, which I was glad to do.