;)
(Note: Terry's surgery was canceled and rescheduled for October 11. We took the opportunity to move her parents to a new place in Petoskey. Here is the story.)
AN ADVENTURE IN MOVING
In 1984 Terry and I packed up the kids (Carl, age 5 and Mary, age 1) and hauled them off to Illinois. Terry drove our car with Mary in the infant car seat and J.S. Bark the family beagle curled up within the tiny space not packed with boxes and luggage. I drove a U-HAUL truck packed to the gills. Carl rode with me in the truck. We pulled a U-HAUL trailer behind. We called it our adventure in moving. We were off to start a new life in a new place with a new job. None of that worked out the way we had hoped. By 1989 we were back in Michigan and life proceeded in what has turned out to be an unexpected but blessed direction.
That whole moving scene came back to me this past week. On Friday we packed up Terry's parents and moved them to an assisted living place in Petoskey. Terry drove our car with her parents as passengers and our present dog, Copper, curled up in her crate surrounded by bags and boxes of their possessions. I drove a U-HAUL truck packed full. Carl rode with me along with his dog, Moose, a Belgium Shepherd, sitting in the jump seat in the cab of the truck.
I was struck by the similarities and the differences of the two moves. In 1984 we were a young married couple with little kids heading off to a new future with high hopes and more than a little anxiety. Now we are in our sixties. We have been married for 37 years. Our kids are married adults and our care giving is directed toward Terry's parents who are no longer capable of caring for themselves. This move was was not to a new future but rather to a tolerable present. This move was less about hope and more about coping. This time the goal was to get her parents resettled quickly so that we could get back for Terry's surgery on Monday.
Two moves with comical and superficial similarities. Two moments of transition and two different stages in life. The real continuity resides not in the U-HAUL rental or in the packed vehicles or in the dogs. The real continuity resides in our commitment to one another through all of the transitions, hopes and disappointments in life. That is the real Adenture In Moving.