Not because of Vanessa.
Because the custody fight reminded me that I was seventy-three.
My age wasn’t an insult.
It was information.
I created a succession plan.
A professional management team would run the company if I could no longer do it.
Employee protections were written into the plan.
Jeffrey and George would eventually benefit financially through trusts, but neither would be forced to run a tea company simply because their grandmother had built one.
When I explained this to them, George looked disappointed.
“So I don’t become CEO automatically?”
“No.”
“This family has terrible policies.”
Jeffrey laughed.
I smiled.
“You can apply for a job.”
“At my own company?”
“It isn’t your company.”
He gasped dramatically.
I realized then that the business really wasn’t my greatest legacy.
For years, people had congratulated me on Ellis Hearth.
Reporters asked how I’d turned homemade tea into a national brand.
