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A planned life! That was exactly what he was living. The plan was to make a fortune, to turn a million into ten million. But he realized now that he had left out everything that counted; he could no longer endure it.
Then and there he vowed to give his money away and find a more satisfying reason for living. Whatever he settled on, his new life would have to mean something, to have a positive effect on others.
When he reached New York, Linda told him she wanted to keep the marriage together. That evening, as they were drinking orange juice at Radio City Music Hall, Linda broke down and began sobbing.
They left the theater clutching each other and went for a walk. Finally, they began to talk, with a rush of feeling. Millard spoke of his idea to go home, give everything away and start afresh. What did she think? Linda nodded yes and embraced him. Whatever comes next, she thought, we'll face it together.
The Fullers returned to Alabama and sold Millard's share of the company. They put their houses on the market, sold the boats and distributed the proceeds among churches, colleges and charities. Millard was feeling better — breathing came easier, his chest pain was gone — but now he needed a job. As a stopgap measure, he became a New York-based fund-raiser for a small college in Mississippi.
The Fullers moved into an apartment over a gas station in New Jersey. Millard commuted to Manhattan by bus. Their tight budget was made even tighter by the birth of their third child. But they didn't mind their scaled-down life-style. Now they were a team.
Millard found his work satisfying, but he still yearned for a mission that would summon all his energy and idealism. When the fund drive ended a year later, he wrote to his minister friend Clarence Jordan and asked if he had any ideas. Maybe, replied Jordan. He invited Millard to Georgia.
Jordan had been thinking about the dilapidated shacks that lined the red-clay roads around Americus. They often lacked heat and plumbing, and the poor families who lived in them couldn't afford repairs. Banks wouldn't give them mortgages, so they had to keep on renting. They were trapped.
