The Next Phase
We spent 25 years making a living and raising our children, and suddenly we are laid off and the children are grown. You have to ask what now? Well, it’s a new time in life, but it is still our life and we find that we go on. Sounds rather like a cliché but that is how it is. And since we’ve done some things right, and we’ve had some luck, we find that we are still in a great place. First, we moved. I’m not sure that that was the best move to make. The kids sure hated it. But as the northern cities lost their industrial base, it made sense to move. Only, we didn’t want to go too far, since we still wanted to enjoy the seasons and be able to drive back to our hometown to visit, so we moved from the shores of Lake Ontario to the suburbs of Philadelphia – further from friends, but closer to families. And we took the kids with us. The oldest had just graduated from the community college, while the youngest was just entering eighth grade. Like I said, they hated it. They missed their friends. And cousins who had enjoyed their company during the yearly holiday visits now ignored them during the day-to-day tedium. But, hey! You can’t go home again, but home is exactly where you are. So this is home.
