A SCOND OPINION: Moving Out, Moving On

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by Mary Foran

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I wonder why things have to change and why I have to move from this familiar old house

I stare at the familiar ceiling of my bedroom, warm and cozy in my familiar bed, wondering why things have to change and why I have to move from this familiar old house.

It’s for practical reasons, he says, property taxes going sky high and five-year construction projects on the way which are going to tear up the neighborhood, and the “liberal” leadership of the city which has brought crime and rioting to a once beautiful and peaceful place.

I help him pack up his things, so intent is he on leaving the house his grandfather built behind. I can only predict he’ll miss it when he really thinks about it. The history of this house fascinated me and although it took some getting used to, I grew to love its quirks and defects as much as its amenities.

I had my own office, and now I wonder if I need one at all

I had my own office which I filled with books and two computers and printers and a telephone. I really had a business going for a while, and now I wonder if I need an office at all in my retiring years.

Packing up all my things is going to be an almost impossible task, and charities don’t take everything nowadays. My clothes need to be gone through, and that is the hardest task of all because I used to be a real clothes horse when I was working full time and having to look my best. Now I dress in the same few things and my closet is full of outdated styles.

He says it’s going to be “an exciting new world” for us, but I am sentimental and stuck on the familiar stairs I climb to my office and the tiny kitchen in which I cook. The one bathroom is easy to clean and the basement is perfect for his tools and paraphernalia.

He is a collector and has collections of knick-knacks and magazines and books. I am a collector too and have Books of Knowledge like dictionaries, and Fairy Tales, and Old Classics which I don’t want to get rid of.

He has lived in this house for many years and has collected a lifetime of things and furniture, and I have lived in this house since 2005 and have collected furniture too. It is a daunting task to think of moving anything.

He says I should have a better attitude about the move since it is going to be for the better

And how am I going to survive without my computers and printers and telephone? It was so complicated to hook them up, how am I going to get them hooked up again and in the meantime be without internet?

Well, he says I should have a better attitude about the move since it is going to be for the better. But I can’t help wanting to stay in one place, especially this place, which has such a hold on me.

They say “home is where the heart is” and my heart has been here for a long, long time.

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Images (Generic)
Featured image/Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office’s photostream, CC BY2.0
Empty room/Loozrboy, CC BY-SA2.0, cropped
Packed office/Casey Marshall, cropped, CC BY2.0
Man on moving van/Jennifer Kramer, cropped, CC BY2.0
“Home…”/janexieok from Pixabay. Text and frame supplied.