Willard Garvey by Maura McEnaney

Author:Maura McEnaney
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780988655638
Publisher: Independent Institute

WHEAT FOR HOMES: EVERY MAN A CAPITALIST

“Property rights are the foundation of individual freedom.”–WWG

FROM THE GANGWAY of the M.V. Caronia ocean liner, a squinting 82-year-old Jean Garvey gingerly made her way into the tropical heat of Lima, Peru. It was February—Lima’s warmest month—and the intensity of the South American sun strained her vision. As she drew closer to the group of well-wishers who came to the Callao port to greet the ship, Jean scanned the crowd hoping to spot an old friend.

It had been more than a year since Willard’s death. And because so much of their life had been spent together traveling, Jean had been “itching to get abroad” for some time. At the suggestion of Seth Atwood, a retired Illinois executive and friend of the Garveys since Willard’s days with the Young Presidents Organization, Jean went ahead and booked a 72-day South American cruise on the 700-passenger Cunard luxury liner. The minute the ship pulled out of Fort Lauderdale, Jean began looking forward to this day-long stop in Lima, where she would relive fond memories from long, long ago.

On land, 73-year-old Rodolfo Salinas and his wife, Carmen, anxiously anticipated Jean’s arrival. It had been more than 40 years since they first met her as she accompanied Willard on a site visit to Hogares Peruanos, the local arm of Willard’s World Homes company. From 1962 to 1971, Salinas was a young manager at World Homes, overseeing the administration, financing, and construction of some of its largest Peruvian projects, including Sol de Oro, a 460-home complex northeast of Lima along the Pan-American Highway.

As he waited, Salinas, an elfin septuagenarian with creased dark skin and warm brown eyes, may have been thinking about how much Lima had changed. What had been a growing capital city of under two million in 1960 had exploded into a giant megalopolis, teeming with more than five million residents throughout. Sol de Oro, the massive, once isolated development outside the city limits, was now engulfed by sprawling development extending directly from Lima. It used to take only 15 minutes to drive from Sol de Oro to the center of Lima. Now—unless you drove like Willard, perhaps—traffic congestion doubled the travel time.

There were other changes too. Over the decades, Peru had suffered at the hands of vicious dictatorships, military coups, earthquakes, and abject poverty. Through it all, Sol de Oro was still thriving, and today, that was something to celebrate. It was why Salinas, his wife, and dozens more waited to see Jean Garvey again.

When the small, brown-haired woman in the green linen dress flashed an illuminating smile his way, Salinas knew her instantly. Barely noticing how the years had unsteadied her gait, he greeted her and two companions from the ship, then whisked them off in two cars. A day of activity awaited them, and Salinas didn’t want to waste a minute.

For the 20-minute ride, the caravan made its way east from Callao and then north along the Pan-American Highway, turning left into a grid of streets bearing celestial names such as Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Venus.

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