As I was getting ready for bed last night I realized it was Monday night and I hadn’t even started thinking about my weekly Tuesday long post. I panicked for a moment. Then I remembered the tag line of this site is “True Wealth is Control Over Your Own Time.” And I am wealthy indeed.
For years I’ve been looking forward to retiring. There are, of course, many reasons for that, but one in particular was that I could spend as much time as I want or need with my parents. That floated to the top of the list in importance during the last several months of my dad’s life in 2017. I was still working and I struggled to balance keeping my job and spending the time I felt I needed with my parents. I was grateful that my employers were super understanding. The only thing that would have been better during that time is if I was already retired.
After I came home from mom’s birthday in Wisconsin in early June (see that post here) mom called several times. She was struggling with some back pain she started experiencing after her party. And, on the last day I was there, her car died and we had to take it to the mechanic. The 2010 Impala had to be junked because the transmission was full of water. So she was without a vehicle and needed to find a replacement. After we left, in pain and without a vehicle, she was feeling trapped and anxious about how to resolve the problems. She had to rely on my siblings for…everything. But each of them were in difficult (though temporary) situations of their own.
Watching this from afar is hard. So, with the freedom and true wealth of retirement, I bought a one-way ticket, got on a plane and came back to Wisconsin to help get my family though this difficult, time demanding few weeks.
I am so blessed to be able to be here and help mom. It also gives me great joy to take a little of the pressure off my siblings who carry so much of the load so that I can live my dream life in Florida. I am grateful for them to be willing to continue to live here in Wisconsin, near Mom, and be so devoted to taking care of her. And I am also thankful for Randy’s support, love, and patience. He absolutely is the best husband God could have gifted me with. He loves my family as much as most of them love him.
This post is going to be shorter than normal as we need to head out to a doctor appointment in Green Bay in a few minutes. Thank you all for being faithful readers, some of whom would have let me know if I missed posting this morning. You are all precious to me.
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