Henry remains in the hospital after a grand mal seizure. The downside of this is that he's in and out of consciousness and only vaguely aware of his surroundings. The upside is that this hospital is just 3 miles away from their new home in Fort Lauderdale. No more air lifting Henry out of Key West to get him decent medical care.
I wish they were each nearer to me so I could help more. But they both chose to leave Chicagoland -- with its jobs and world-class hospitals and, of course, The Gal Herself -- to struggle emotionally, physically and financially in SoCal and Florida respectively. Why? Snow. And it gets dark so early! It's so flat (my oldest friend). They were "done" with Chicago and wanted "something new" (Henry and Reg).
The Bible says, "bloom where you are planted." On M*A*S*H, Col. Potter said, "If you aren't where you are, you're no place." Do I ever fantasize about leaving and starting over? Sometimes. Property taxes and crime are high here and I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed either.
But my life is here. My friends are here. The Cubs are here. I am, by and large, happy here.
Maybe that's the lesson my oldest friend and Henry are here to teach me with their example: I'm lucky I like my life.
I do hope your oldest friend and Henry recover soon.
ReplyDeleteThis post was very interesting to me as my husband and I try to decide where we will move once I retire. We know we don't want to stay in the neighborhood or the house where we are now. Hubby wants to move somewhere far away, but I want to stay closer to what friends and family we have around here. He finally conceded that at least we will stay in the state of Utah, but he wants to go to the warmer southern part of the state. You make some excellent points in this post. No place is perfect - we just have to decide what is most important to us.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry about your friends. Getting older is hard. Caring is hard. Good for you for managing to do both so well.
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