For a long time, I thought, if I ever wrote my autobiography, it would be titled The Journey Was A Joy. But as started to write it, that seemed wrong. I thought that would instead be the name of the last chapter. As I thought about the journeys I have been on—spatial, physical, spiritual, professional, intellectual, avocational—I decided instead I would title it Tales Of A Vagabond. I’ve written the first six chapters of that.
I’m about to embark on a new chapter of the vagabond life. For a long time Lynda and I have talked about moving to be close to one of our children. The choices were Worcester, Massachusetts and Lake Jackson, Texas. The problem is, neither of them may be in their current locations for a long time. Either of them could pick up and move in a matter of a few years. Knowing that, we’ve been slow-walking our decumulation efforts, as readers of this blog will know. Our son in Worcester finally convinced Lynda that the better place for us to move was to Lake Jackson. I had been of that mind for some time.
A couple of weeks ago, a house across the street and two doors down from our daughter came up for sale. To make a long story short, we found the house to be perfect in size and location. Through a realtor we made an offer, came to an agreement with the seller, and are under contract to buy the house. Closing is scheduled for Dec. 8.
Monday, we met with a realtor (husband and wife team) in our house in Bella Vista. Within a day or two we will likely put her to work as our realtor, and get the house listed ASAP. We think it will show well (if we can get it at least somewhat more presentable) and hope it will sell reasonably quickly. Our time to move is between Dec 18-ish and April 1. I have knee replacement surgery scheduled for Jan 27, so it may not happen then depending on when we do make the move.
Am I excited? No. The amount of work before us is massive. Slow walking isn’t going to get it done. The worst part will be leaving our church of almost 36 years. That will be hard.
We’ve been in this house for close to 24 years, and in this area since January 1991. That kind of stability probably negates the idea of me being a vagabond. But life isn’t defined only by your physical location. My life has included many other types of journeys.
If I live long enough, like into my nineties, it is likely that this won’t be the last move in the vagabond journey.
I’ll be praying for you guys! I do think TX should be a great place to live. My mom moved to assisted living in July fairly suddenly, and we 3 girls are in the (very slow) process of cleaning her somewhat hoarded house, where she’d lived since the late 1970s. I’ll go into a room and just feel at a loss for where to even begin, there’s so much stuff. So I get what you’re facing, but your kids will be SO grateful that you’re doing much of this work.
Susan, we continue to make progress. We may have accelerated from progress by inches to progress by half-feet.
Best of luck to the two of you. I will miss seeing you occasionally at conferences, but I can still keep in touch through Facebook and know what’s new with your excellent writing.
I’ll keep an eye out for your memoir/autobiography. I’m thinking of doing the same thing, mainly to share my experiences that might help someone else have hope. I have a name for it. I just need to fill the pages.
Bonnie, the autobiography, should it ever be written, will be years before it comes out.
I will miss our occasional bumping into each other at local conferences.