A Day in the Life of Edward McCoy

A Year in the Life of Edward McCoy

The story of Edward McCoy was boring for a while. He lived an average life in an average place. He worked as an auto mechanic in Kansas City, lived in an apartment, and took the bus to work because he didn’t own a car. He watched on TV as the ball dropped in New York’s Times Square and one year turned into another. He was alone that night. Very alone. He remembered when he was a teenager how he and his brother would sneak alcohol into their New Year’s parties. But Ed hadn’t seen his brother in a long time...
On January 1, Ed met one of the new hires at the auto shop, Alyssa. They hit it off immediately and were dating by the end of the week.
On January 14, Ed was promoted to head mechanic and earned a raise along with the new position. He could now afford to increase his standard of living and take Alyssa out more regularly.
When January 25 rolled around, Ed was planning on marrying Alyssa already. They had been on 7 or 8 dates, he couldn’t remember because they were all a blur, and he felt really good about her.
February 5, Ed proposes to Alyssa at a Super Bowl party he hosted annually in front of their friends and co-workers. Alyssa accepts and they begin wedding planning that week.
On the 18th of February, Ed bought a used car that was in excellent condition and only a few years old.
February 27th comes around and Ed receives a large bonus on top of another raise for his exceptional work at the shop and the efficiency of those working underneath him.
On March 9, Ed befriends the CEO of the auto-body franchise that he works for. The Regional Manager had put in a good word for him and now Ed was in very good standing with the CEO.
On March 15, a date is set for Ed and Alyssa’s wedding. They make April 17th their wedding date and send out invitations to virtually everyone they know. They have reserved a park in the city near where they both work for the wedding.
As the wedding on April 17th approaches, Ed and Alyssa scramble to make last minute arrangements. The band they had scheduled to play cancels on April 10th.
Ed received word from corporate that he is going to be promoted to Regional Manager, effective May 1st. Ed has little time to savor the news because it is currently April 14th and he still has no band for the wedding.
On April 15th, Ed gets a couple of old friends of his from college to play. One of them plays piano, the other guitar and vocals. Everything looks set.
April 17th finally arrives and Ed and Alyssa are married at the same park where they used to play as children in Kansas City. Ed begins looking at houses in the suburban part of the city, on the outskirts for he and his wife to settle in.
Edward and Alyssa McCoy set their eyes on a beautiful two-story home on the outskirts of the city. Ed puts a deposit on the home and looks forward to buying it once he becomes Regional Manager on May 1st.
On May 1, Ed becomes Regional Manager. A few days later he seals the deal on the house he and his wife chose in a beautiful suburban community.
On May 12, Alyssa discovers that she is pregnant. The McCoy family is overjoyed and begin making plans for a third member of their family, who is due sometime in December.
On May 27, Ed is in a serious car accident on his way to one of the auto-shop branches to meet with its manager. He is rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
It is May 28. Ed’s condition has improved, but only slightly. He lost a lot of blood in the accident but doctors are hopeful that he has not sustained any permanent injuries.
On May 29, Alyssa hears that blood donors are needed for Ed ASAP. She offers to donate hers but their blood types are not compatible. She tells her co-workers about the situation and soon there is a line at the hospital of people who work for Ed waiting to donate blood to him.
On May 31, the company puts an interim Regional Manager in place while Ed is in the hospital. It is to avoid chaos and keep the various branches reporting and communicating, but Alyssa knows that if Ed doesn’t recover soon he will find himself out of a job.
June 2. Some good news comes from the hospital. After about a dozen blood transfusions and an extended period in intensive care, Ed’s condition changed from critical to stable. Alyssa was allowed to speak with him for the first time in a week.
On June 3, Ed was released from the hospital. He returned home to find that his wife and co-workers had redecorated an entire room in their house into a kids’ room.
June 18. Ed is now fully recovered and, according to him, even better than he was before. He had been back at work since the 4th but was now able to come off of the painkillers his doctors had prescribed.
July 4. An Independence Day party is hosted by the McCoys. It was a dream come true for Ed as he flipped burgers in his back yard with his wife and his closest friends.
July 11. There are rumors that Ed could receive another promotion in the auto shop business. The next position up was Midwest Superintendent. Ed shrugged off the rumor because he knew it wasn’t true. He had been Regional Manager for barely a month and a half.
July 20. The company CEO pays a visit to Ed in Kansas City to congratulate him on how well he has been running the city’s 4 shop locations. He has cut expenses by 30% and increased profits by nearly 50%. After the meeting he began to take the rumor about a potential promotion a bit more seriously.
August 3rd comes around and Ed receives a special phone call. It’s from the CEO telling him that he has been promoted to Midwest Superintendent. Ed can’t believe the news. He takes his wife out to celebrate that night at an expensive restaurant where they had their 2nd date back in January.
On August 7th, the McCoy family buys a second car. Now that transportation is a bit more flexible for both of them, Alyssa takes a job offer for a newspaper. Unbeknownst to her husband, Alyssa had been writing in her spare time and was noticed by the newspaper, who wanted her skill set.
On August 18, a fire breaks out at the McCoy’s house. Ed gets his wife and a few other valuables out before the fire spreads to the point where entry into the house is impossible. The fire department arrives but is unable to extinguish the fire in time for the house to still be inhabitable. The house is deemed structurally unstable and no one is allowed back inside.
August 19. Ed and Alyssa stay with a friend. The same friend who helped Alyssa and some others decorate an entire room in the McCoy’s house to prepare for the birth of their child around Christmas time.
Ed and Alyssa search for another house to move into. They had loved their house and it was in a location that they both loved. Now their only options were to move farther away from their friends and their jobs.
August 29. One of Ed’s close friends, the manager of a branch on the other side of the city, tells Ed that he and his wife are moving to Seattle because he got a job offer there. Ed agrees to buy the house for him and they are able to move in at the end of September.
September 15. The McCoys help their friends move out of their house at the same time they are preparing to move in. It will be a big step for both of their families and they promise to keep in touch.
On September 28, ownership of the new house is officially transferred to Edward and Alyssa McCoy. One of the first things they do is select another room for their child.
October 8. Ed attends a party in Oklahoma City with his wife and other high-ranking members of the company. The CEO, a few regional managers, and the East Coast, Northwest, and Southern Superintendents attend the party.
October 16. The due date for the McCoy’s baby is updated to December 30. The date is still pretty variable but the doctor believes the baby will be born in this calendar year.
October 31. At a Halloween party, Ed meets Michael, an editor at the newspaper where Alyssa works. After hearing about the things Ed has been able to do in the past several months, he asks him if he can write a short biographical piece for the paper. Ed turns him down.
On November 5, the CEO of the auto-body company announces that he is retiring at the end of the month to pursue his dream of becoming a flamingo aficionado. Holding in laughter, the various superintendents wondered who would be considered for the CEO job. Needless to say, Ed’s name was in the mix.
On November 13, Ed receives a phone call from his newspaper editor friend Michael. He still wants to write a piece on him for the newspaper. Ed tells him it’s not for him. He tells him that he’s not exceptional.
November 23 is the first time that so much of Ed and Alyssa’s family had been together in full. At the McCoy’s Thanksgiving party, both of their parents as well as Ed’s sisters and Alyssa’s brother and sister were there. Ed had a brother but he hadn’t seen him since he was teenager and he had no way to contact him.
November 25. The company CEO announces just 5 days before his retirement that Edward McCoy will be the next CEO. This causes waves among the more veteran superintendents but the decision is finalized the next day.
December 2 is Ed’s first official day as CEO of the auto-body company. The raise he receives with the new position allows him to purchase much-needed upgrades to the family home.
December 7. Ed and Alyssa attend a wreath-laying ceremony in Kansas City for the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
On December 10, Alyssa’s doctors set her due date to somewhere towards the end of the year, give or take a few days.
On December 12, Ed and Alyssa put up their first Christmas tree in their new home.
December 25. Christmas Day. Ed and Alyssa celebrate with Christmas Dinner at their home with some of their friends from their respective jobs. Ed runs into Michael who, once again, requests to write about him for the paper. Seeing all that has changed in his life in the past year, Ed accepts. The article will be published on January 1st.
On December 30, Alyssa goes into labor. Complications arise and her and Ed look at their options. The baby is on-time, not early. However, the doctors need to perform emergency surgery due to a condition that the baby possesses that will likely kill it if it is born conventionally.
December 31st is the day Alyssa’s complicated surgery begins. She is sedated and doctors begin preparing to carefully perform a C-section and remove the McCoy’s child.
When December 31st turns into January 1, Edward McCoy is not at home watching the ball drop in New York. He was at the hospital awaiting news of his wife and his child. The doctors inform him that the surgery went exceptionally well and that he can see his newborn daughter. Hope was a 6-pound 12-ounce New Year’s Baby. Ed and Alyssa were parents and the feeling couldn’t be better.
It was then that Ed realized just how much his life has changed in one short year. He had become a husband, a father, the CEO of the company he worked for, and had a beautiful two-story home. The only way things could get better was if Edward could somehow contact his long lost brother. He stayed positive though and held his daughter Hope.
Later in the morning, Ed picked up the newspaper from a waiting room inside the hospital. In it, he read an article entitled “A Day in the Life of Edward McCoy”, by Michael McCoy.

The End