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Five years ago I was into my retirement a couple of years, widowed since 2007 and living in a very small town. I was 64 and too old to do any dating, so I thought. My wife and I planned for our retirements from 2000 on, we looked at homes all around the state, finally landing in that small town for it's beauty and quiet slow pace of life, she died a few months after we moved.
After reeling from all the changes I'd gone through I realized that this was life as it was meant to be, full of surprises, some good and some not. Moving on toward that end of our expiration date seems to be the one thing we can count on, so, I moved on and began dating through an online site and eventually found my present wife, we are now moving on together to whatever the next changes we will confront, for better or worse.........
This thread has been both heart warming and heart wrenching. Teddy, sorry to rep you on such an old post, it wasn't until I read on further that Margaret had passed.
5YA I would have never imagined
getting married to my SO of 29 years
losing my stepdad suddenly and how devastated it would leave me
calling my mother evey night (still do) to make sure she didn't fade away, too
selling off stuff like mad to move closer to mom
watching my healthy and active DH crawling up the stairs after returning from work in pain and discovering he needed a hip replacement
realizing how unsuitable our then dream cotttage was due to physical changes
enduring a winter so difficult that DH could not go outside because of ice and fall risk
DH being terrified of walking the stairs to the barn
anxiety attacks
losing my mom's twin sister unexpectedly this April
assuming all of the house and barn care duties
being sick for over a year with recurring sinus infections and colds
finding new faith
joining CD forums
After reeling from all the changes I'd gone through I realized that this was life as it was meant to be, full of surprises, some good and some not. Moving on toward that end of our expiration date seems to be the one thing we can count on, so, moving on to whatever the next changes we will confront, for better or worse.........
What interesting lives we've all lived! This is a fascinating thread--I am sorry for all of the loss experienced here.
My dh and I have had a wild ride too, and five years ago if someone had suggested I'd be where I am now I would have laughed at the absurdity of it.
So five years ago we were almost a year into our new business of caring for and providing a home for intellectually disabled men, we had one client who lived with us full time and a few guys who rotated in and out for respite. We had an assistant who lived with us, a farm with horses, goats, chickens and cats and dogs.
We had started this business in response to my dh losing his business due to his chronic illness, so times were tight and we were scrambling to keep it all together.
I was still in remission from my scrape with a strange and rare cancer, so we were chugging along thinking we just might make it all work.
But apparently it wasn't meant to be long term, and in January of 2013 we decided to sell the farm and downsize.
We just couldn't keep ahead of the rising costs of taxes and fuel and feed.
Also in January of 2013 I noticed a couple of small lumps behind my ear and assumed they were lymph nodes doing their job of fighting an infection somewhere. They weren't, they were lymph nodes which were malignant so while organizing yard sales and staging the house I was undergoing tests and preparing for surgery. We found buyers while it was all happening, and closed on the farm 4 days after surgery. Because we were so busy with health problems--turns out dh needed chemo again while this was all happening, so we gave up our last remaining full time guy and moved into our camper. Days later we were told that I needed chemo and radiation in another state, so we gave away all of our pets too and went to live where I was to be treated for three months.
By last November when the Drs were finished with me I was washed up. Chemo and the radiation had kicked my butt so badly I could barely move. We had the camper but no home to which we could return, so we had the camper moved to a southern state so I could recover.
By March 2014 I was feeling well enough to want to go back to work. But where? Dh and I now lived full time in our camper and had no home or work call our own. I did some research and found we could make a decent income in Texas, so we headed here and got to work quickly and easily.
Mid June I send dh for routine blood work and discover that he's having yet another leukemia crisis and off we go to the nearest big hospital. That turned out to be THE place for bone marrow transplants, and wonders of wonders because we made it here he's been fast tracked for a transplant and we are weeks or even days away from that starting.
The Drs here tell us it's the cure, so by this time next year my dh will be cured and we get to start over--again!
I'm still in remission again, we LOVE living in our camper, and cannot wait to update this thread in 2019!
I'll say it again, you think you're life's in the crapper, you don't have to look very far to find someone else who is fighting a much tougher battle than you.
That someone would give me $100,000 to pay off my mortgage.
That I would understand, as much as I do, how this Universe works and become
a healer, by His Grace. Realized this in 2009, 5 yrs ago about this time.
I didn't know I could have anything I wanted by asking and believing...
I mean, who knew!!!?
What amazing developments in just a few years. We can only wonder where we'll all be in another 5 years. Alive I hope, at least.
Alive would be good and with my family history of "early" deaths for males would surpass the norm. Give me eight more years and I'll be a happy camper and ready to go if need be.
To be honest, I have to go back about 30 years to not be able to imagine how my life wouldn't turn out. Then, twenty years ago, i made up my mind that no one was going to change my life for me and everything has been uphill since then.
Thirty years ago, I never dreamed that I would be as happy with my life as i am today.
Progressive dementia!
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