For months, I have thought a lot about how to travel slowly
and live slowly but the past week or so has been more of a sprint. With a
revised close date on the house of Aug. 14, 2015 and hopefully final doctor’s
appointments on the 11th and 12th, we had this theory that we would leave
Lancaster after the Aug. 12 doctor’s appointment. That meant completely
emptying and cleaning the house. My sister came up to help us for a few days
with a final garage sale and to sort and organize everything that was left.
Furniture and big things were mostly sold on Craigslist or
at consignment shops but a lot was given away. I hate to throw away perfectly
good things so we put a lot of thought into who could use our stuff. Lots of
food went to the LCCC Food Pantry, unused toiletries and random things went to
Clare House – a shelter for homeless families, craft items to Lancaster ReUse,
Building Supplies to Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and then there were the 18
trips to Goodwill! We also rented a 4’x6’ storage space to keep things with
sentimental value or high worth, low footprint.
With my inability to drive, and our annual inspection date
creeping closer, we had made the decision to sell our older car and clear space
in the garage. While we knew that there would be a million things to do, we
hadn’t quite realized how long all of those million things would take when most
of the burden would fall on Erich. He had to do any heavy lifting, driving,
climbing of stairs, and still help handle my daily needs as getting in and out
of bed even still requires assistance.
When not actively working, there was also the business side
of things that I could do. Things
like scheduling utility shut off, change of address forms, research into trip
plans . . . all leading up to the doctor’s appointments that would decide our
immediate plans. The big one finally arrived on Aug. 11. Meeting with my
orthopedic surgeon was everything we could have hoped for. The pathology report
showed the removed cancer to be a grade 2 chondrosarcoma with clear margins.
The doctor was very pleased with my healing and gave us a very manageable
follow-up plan that didn’t require returning to Lancaster. Our meeting with the
vascular surgeon the following day sealed the deal as he signed off on my care.
This left us with just the final work of emptying the house and saying goodbye
to friends.
Most of the stuff left was all the little stuff, but then
there was the mattress. Sleeping without one wasn’t an option for me so we had
negotiated with someone to purchase it on the day we were leaving. Then he
cancelled. This left us in a very stressful situation as we couldn’t just leave
it there. I posted it on Craigslist for $10 and the phone started ringing. The
first person said he could be there in 15 minutes. When thirty had passed, I
called to reach a voicemail that hadn’t been set up. So I moved on to the next
person who wouldn’t be able to be there for several hours. The third person
likewise didn’t show so onto the 4th person. Another no show and
feeling desperate so I reposted it under free items and another round of phone
calls ensued. This is one of those things that I think we will look back on and
laugh. Who knew it would be this hard to give away a queen bed? Finally,
someone picked it up, the last few trips were made, and it was time to go.
Leaving Lancaster is definitely bittersweet. So much
excitement about being on the road and starting the journey, but we are leaving
really good friends and great memories behind. They will all be missed.
Leaving a day and a half later than hoped means for longer driving days but on our second day on the road, a call from our realtor let us know that we are officially homeless! Somehow for me, it makes it all so much more real.
No comments:
Post a Comment