My wife was just not a person of action. She would rather just enjoy each day as they came along. Her card and board games, picture puzzles, naps, and TV shows were her daily activities throughout our married life. She hated change, and when I forced it upon her, she didn’t appreciate it at all! But, after it happened, she most often grudgingly admitted she kinda liked the experience.
One example of this is when I told her that I would be working in Guadalajara Mexico for a few months and I wanted her to come with me! She initially didn’t like that at all, but finally agreed to go. Eventually, she came to enjoy her time in GDL. She, with some other expat wives, went to the weekly outdoor markets regularly, and there were frequent dinners out with fellow employees almost put her in seventh heaven.
Four years short of my full 30-year retirement plan, my job was moved to New Jersey. If I had not moved with it, it would have seriously affected my monthly pension. This was a major disruption for her. She would be leaving all her friends and the regular visits to her clan would have to be put on hold for four long years.
We eventually settled in a home about an hour’s train ride south of New York City. She soon announced that she would never go into NYC, but as usual, I convinced her to make the trek. As that day passed her apprehension about the city began to vanish. We visited the usual tourists stops such as the Empire State Building, World Trade Center, Ellis Island, and Union Station. After that visit, she wanted to go into the city several times a year. When some of her clan from northern Wisconsin came to visit she made the trip with them on her own! She became a “pro tour guide” for visiting relatives.😎
Like most other times when her routines were disrupted, she ended up thanking me for having this new life experience. I told her when we moved from NJ that she would choose where we would live. We moved back to Indiana and settled into our new homestead. She emphatically said that this would be the last home where she would live, and it was for the next 21 years!
One of the last trips we made in the intervening years was to go back to NYC in 2015. Her health was deteriorating rapidly by then, but she was determined to make that final visit. I’m glad she got to do it.
RJ's Corner 