September 3rd, 2017.
To Start With…
Double Anniversary Date.
2010, my brother Doug married Jessica, but it just so happened that it was also the day I got in my loaded Toyota Camry, two cat carriers in the back seat facing one another so Japolo and Gigi could see each other and take some comfort in that before they were free to roam the car at stops and when I slept in it most nights; trunk was loaded with food and clothing and items for the move; the trailer was loaded to capacity with some books, some movies and television shows, totes of Halloween and Christmas decor, a flat screen TV and a mattress. The footwell of the passenger seat had a perfectly fitting cooler that had road food (mostly hard boiled eggs) and drinks (mostly water and small Cokes) and the cat box on the seat itself covered with a board for other storage, cat food and such.
It is really amazing how it can seem like so long ago an the one view and as if it was just last month in another. I know it was THE perfect time to make the move, as I could see faint writing on the wall of work that the substandard practices of the boss would soon reflect badly on all of us workers, possibly screwing up chances of getting a job in the same field; so plans were made, storage units were obtained, almost everything I own was stored, the car and trailer were loaded and I began my journey to a new life and new chapter on that day, September 3rd, in 2017.
I lived in Alaska all my adult life. 41 years. So much of who I have become was forged there. Almost every friend was left behind there.
The idea of moving, though it had been in my head since my parents retired and moved to Tennessee, was terrifying. 41 years of making a life and home, I suppose the fear of all change has it’s unknowns and fear, but this….🥺🤯
Still, it was accomplished and things worked out perfectly. I could not have envisioned just how much better life would become. Oh, it had it’s rocky spots, as life will, with the sudden passing of that same brother Doug (although I did get to have a great final get-together with him on the drive from Alaska), but not only finding a perfect house, new-built, that was easily made into two separate living spaces, one for my parents and the other for me, but also in being able to fulfill a promise to my parents that when the time came I would move closer to them to be on hand for them in their dotage and to help care for them.
To End With…
Almost to the day, September 3rd, five years on, I begin to plan the return trip to Alaska. To see friends. To visit places. To eat at favorite haunts.
To finish the move that started five years ago…
This required a loan, as things are still ridiculously expensive with this non-recession, though flights are half what they were a month ago, thankfully.
It simply needs doing. I hope to see my Alaska friends again in the future, but I cannot miss an opportunity to see them all again. This needs doing, finally, but it also seems like a hard finality, the last material anchor to what was Home for so long. Will it even still have that feeling of Home? There will be Connection, I am sure, but Home has now become somewhere else, somewhere ‘better’.
I so look forward to having my things about me. I so look forward to having friends who are like Family about me again. I look forward to the closure of what was life and Home in Alaska.
I look forward to the Future.
