I sat at work today as it was admittedly slower than normal and from out of nowhere, I thought about what my life was like in 2000. We were starting a new century, a new decade, and I was just a couple of months into a new adventure in my life. After quite a long debate, Joe and I had decided it was time for me to move to Durham with him. I had delayed moving to Durham because it would mean quitting my job and there were no prospects on the horizon. Therefore the decision was made, take ANY job that I could find that would put me gainfully employed, and move. Once that I had that mindset, I received a job offer, and within 30 days the truck was loaded and me and the kitties headed to Durham permanently. That was October 29, 1999. Two months later the year 2000 was upon us.
Those first few years were interesting in and of themselves with many adventures. January 2000 saw the record snow in Durham of nearly 22 inches at one time. I changed jobs one year after moving and my new job required some travel and on September 11, 2001 I was on an airplane, like many others, heading to a regional conference in DC when the planes hit the towers. There were tense times for Joe and my family until they knew where my plane was. On one fall morning in 2002, I heard a sound outside only to see cadaver sniffing dogs going from car to car parked at our townhouse building. A quick phone call to Joe and we were looking for a new home that afternoon after he got out of school. We closed on the new house in April 2003, starting yet another new adventure.
The fall of 2003, I left my job, started real estate school and by the summer of 2004, was a full time Realtor®. In the spring of 2007, Joe was counting down the days until his retirement in June. Once he retired, we were able to travel a little more and we hit timeshare after timeshare. In October 2010, after spending a week at the beach with his mom, he returned home and I noticed how yellow his skin was. Within 2 weeks we had his pancreatic cancer diagnosis and our lives took a very unexpected turn. That experience forever changed me.
In August 2011 we traveled to Glastonbury, CT and were married and then in January 2013, Joe died. Most of the time from October 2010 to January 2013 is permanently seared into my brain. I can recall almost every hospitalization, every chemo treatment, every scan, every appointment to hear results, every conversation with our oncology team. However, the time from January 2013 to July 2015 is mostly just a blur. Many aspects of my life during that time seem to have been filmed through a dark, cloudy lens.
July 2015 was when I got my prostate cancer diagnosis. That was a fun day….not! But just a couple of weeks later I met Steve. That night the veil, the cloud, the smudged lens seemed to clear. Yes, it was instantaneous. I knew. In March 2017 we were wed. Since Joe and I had to go all the way to Connecticut to be married and had just 3 friends with us, I wanted a big wedding this time. I got my wish. 200 guests later, surrounded by all our family and with friends from far and wide watching, Steve and I were married.
In July 2017, my home in Durham went on the market for sale and closed in 29 days. In August 2017, I had a radical prostatectomy to remove the cancer. February 2018 saw Steve and I write an offer on a new construction home and in November 2018 we closed on that home. Steve retired in July 2019 and has been learning how to live after working for 40+ years. What turned out to be a very long and painful process of clearing out our home in Raleigh finally was completed and by August 2019 we were signing the closing documents on the sale of that home.
Here we are. In our new home (quite beautiful by the way) and the next decade has appeared. What does it hold? Many new adventures. Right now the most pressing would appear to be quite exciting, although somewhat scary. I plan on retiring on May 1, 2020. That will mean that I am leaving the workforce myself after 42 years of full-time employment. Wow. 42 years. Will I miss it? Hmmmm, let me think….NO!
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