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Downsizing, To Move or Not to Move? That is the Question
Aging Well | Last Active: Mar 23 9:13pm | Replies (473)Comment receiving replies
Ginger -
I love that story. Reminds me of three wonderful trips.
My Mom and her sis were widowed a short time apart when in their 70's, and wanted to keep traveling. They talked me into following the HS band my daughter & nephew played in on a road trip to Colorado, where we went watched parades, celebrated the 4th watching a Rockies game and fireworks with the band playing synchronized patriotic music in the background, and white water rafting - something on both their bucket lists that neither husband would consider doing.
A few years later, the 3 of us took a week-long bus trip through Mexico to the Monarch butterfly refuge high in the mountains, and climbed to the top (3 hour hike) to see them.
The last road trip was when Mom was 81and had had a couple strokes, we drove her to see her older sister in Dallas (just diagnosed with leukemia) while on our way to our winter place. We ended upgoing through an ice storm in Oklahoma, heard a lot of priceless stories about her travels with my Dad & her sis and brother-in-law, and even about my long-gone grandparents.
Some of my sibs and cousins were horrified by our "recklessness", but I have the best memories! On the last trip, my brother just laughed, flew down 3 weeks later and drove her home...it turned out to be her last big trip, so glad we got to share it.
I think aging well is all about doing what we can for as long as we can, then trying to (gracefully) let go of what is no longer possible.
Sue
Replies to "Ginger - I love that story. Reminds me of three wonderful trips. My Mom and her..."
@sueinmn. I think it’s great that you did that. I’m sure your mother loved going and being able to pass on family stories, and it was a special time for you too. You must have wonderful memories from that trip.
@gingerw you too have such great memories.
My memories are all from a younger age, I was a teen when my father died suddenly from a heart attack and only 27 when my mother did also.
JK
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@sueinmn The most touching story from that trip was something I still tear up at. We got up early one morning to go see a Redwood grove, and take the first tour. It was end of May, and ranger wasn't sure the snow had cleared enough to take the big open transport. As she came out to raise the American flag, a tour bus pulled up. We had driven in the rental van. My dad stopped his conversation, stood facing the flag, put his hat over his heart and sang the national anthem. I joined in with him. We saluted the flag as it reached full raise. We were the only ones acknowledging the flag that morning. The tour bus had tourists from another country. The memory is seared in my heart. My dad was a WWII Pearl Harbor survivor, and proudly posted the flag each day at his apartment.
You can't downsize that memory.
Ginger