MAYBE FOREVER

We were sitting in the office of a mortgage broker. We were going to buy a new house. He was explaining the various mortgage options. The broker asked us a question. How long do you think you will live in the house? I answered a long time. Possibly twenty years. Maybe forever. We decided on the type of mortgage. We bought the house and moved in during the winter of 2000. It was very exciting!

The house was very nice. Two stories plus a finished lower level. My wife and I worked full time. Our son was in college. We each still had one parent living. We were busy people. We were involved in a lot of activities. We had many friends, relatives and business associates. During the next twelve years we did a lot of entertaining in our home. Dinner parties, birthday and holiday celebrations. New Years Eve and Super Bowl parties. We also kept busy maintaining our house. We maintained the lawn. Planted flowers in the spring and raked leaves in the fall. We bought new furniture and pictures. Painted rooms, upgraded appliances, put on a new roof. We enjoyed the house and were proud of our home. The home we might live in forever. Looking back this was a description of about fifty percent of our time in the house.

Life goes on and things change. They don't stay the same forever. The second half of the years we lived in the house were somewhat different. My son moved to a different part of the country for a while. He would later return to Michigan. Neither of us had parents living anymore. We faced retirement and some health issues. A number of people who were a part of our life were not anymore for a variety of reasons. The days of a lot of entertaining were behind us.

We always liked our house and the subdivision. We retired. Had more time at home. Had time to meet people in the neighborhood we had not known before. We formed some new friendships and relationships. with some of those people. We took up some new hobbies and interests. We kept busy. Something was becoming apparent. The house we liked so much was becoming a lot for us to manage. Physically, mentally, financially the house was becoming a lot to maintain. It was time to downsize. We needed to look for a home that was smaller. A place that had just one floor. We began the process.

We found a place we liked. We got the house ready to put up for sale. We met with a realtor and listed the house. Three days later we accepted an offer. The house we thought we might live in forever was sold. We had an estate sale. Everything was either sold or donated. We were downsizing. We were going to have a fresh start. We hired a moving company to move what was left.

On a very warm Monday morning in early July the movers arrived. Two hours later they packed everything we still had on the truck. We took one last walk around the house to make sure nothing was left behind. We thought about the last twenty-five years for a minute. The movers were waiting. We got in the car and drove off. We were not looking back. The next chapter of our lives had started.

WRITTEN BY

RON TURETT