The financing was plausible. That relieved Denise only slightly. “People can be legitimate and still make bad decisions,” she said. Walter nodded.
“You sound like your mother.” “Good.” Two weeks later Ethan returned with Luis, an architect named Priya Shah, and a structural engineer who spent forty minutes in the crawlspace and emerged looking insulted by nineteenth-century brickwork. Walter met them at the shop because curiosity defeated caution.
Maya came after school. Denise joined by video call from Wichita, demanding to be placed on speaker whenever money was discussed. The initial inspection was sobering. The roof did need work.
The electrical panel was undersized. One rear wall showed moisture damage. The upstairs storage loft could not legally hold public gatherings without major upgrades. Grant Holloway’s warnings had not been bluff.
Ethan listened to the estimates without flinching much. Luis flinched enough for both of them. “We can save the shell,” Priya said. “But we need to prioritize.”
That word became the organizing principle of the next year. Ethan formed a nonprofit called Long Way Home Textile Works, named after Ruth’s quilt label with Walter’s permission. He refused to call it the Ruth Dean Center because Walter threatened, only half jokingly, to spray-paint over any sign that turned his wife into a saint. The nonprofit leased the restored front half of the building from Ethan’s holding company at below-market rent, while two small rear studios were designed for local makers whose rent would help support operations.
The financing came together in pieces. Ethan invested his own money beyond the purchase price. His company donated labor hours. A Kansas veterans’ foundation awarded a grant for adaptive sewing equipment and program development.
The local community foundation funded youth classes. The county provided a small facade-improvement grant. Grant Holloway, to everyone’s surprise, donated surplus lumber from another project and claimed it was cheaper than storing it. Maya suspected he was trying to repair his reputation.