Retirement
When Jon was getting ready to retire at the end of 2022, we were living with his dad, who was 96 years old. Thankfully his dad was still somewhat active and in pretty good health so we made plans to take a few trips to celebrate our new-found freedom. Our first trip in January was a long-awaited return to Hawaii. We'd never been to the Big Island and wanted to visit Volcanoes National Park. It was a wonderful week, and we coincidentally (or not a coincidence!) ran into some good friends we hadn't seen in a while. They are the same friends who offered to have us stay at their AirBnB/apartment this past month, which has been a huge blessing!
Next up was a weekend in Cambria, CA, a Christmas gift from one of our kids, and a beautiful place to just bask in the beauty of the ocean. And then a visit to Denmark for the grandkids' birthdays. However, during the first couple of months of the year as we returned from each trip, we noticed his dad slowing down quite a bit and then he also had a few falls. We were concerned about leaving him alone, even for a few days.
We had already made some travel plans for the summer, so Jon's sister offered to come and spend the summer with him so that we could leave without worrying. She had just retired too and was happy to be able to spend the time with her dad.
We took off on a 5,000 mile road trip through the Southwest, starting with a visit to Utah for Hannah's graduation from the U of U law school, and then made our way down to New Mexico to visit my aunt and uncle, over to Texas to see a nephew, back up through Colorado to visit Spencer while he was on a summer internship, and then back to Utah. Along the way, we visited 4 National Parks and got to see some incredible places.
Gramps was doing pretty well in our absence, though there was a "little" incident when he backed his car into the next door neighbor's front porch. Yikes! That was the end of his driving days, so it was really good that Jon's sister was there to take care of him.
In June we left on another big adventure--we flew to Pittsburgh to be with Holly's family. We rented a car and did a week-long road trip up to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, visited some friends near there, saw the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and then stopped at numerous Church history sites in Ohio and New York, and spent a few days at Niagara Falls. Everything was so incredibly green and beautiful. We joked with our Ohio friends that the Northeast was just trying to put on a big show to get us to consider moving there. And shoutout to Watkins Glen State Park--one of the coolest places we've ever been!
We returned to Pittsburgh and picked up our 10-year-old grandson to take him on the next leg of our adventure--a Disney World trip for his birthday! We drove all the way down, stopping at a few more National Parks, visiting an aunt and some friends in North Carolina, and then took him to the Kennedy Space Center, Cocoa Beach and Disney World for two days. It was a blast! And also incredibly hot! But we created memories with him that we'll treasure forever.
We returned to Pittsburgh and were getting ready to set off on another adventure before heading home--this one to the Boston area to visit friends there see the historical sites, and go to a James Taylor concert (my personal fave). Just as we were going to bed the night before leaving on that trip, we got a call from Jon's sister that their dad had suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away. It was obviously very shocking, and we were heartbroken that we weren't there, but we were so grateful she had been with him when he passed, had been able to spend the previous month or so with him, and that his passing was quick. That's just what he would have wanted--he had been sitting on the couch watching golf, his favorite sport.
We made the immediate decision to cancel the rest of our trip and return home the next day. We had many little tender mercies as we made last minute flight changes, cancelled reservations and sold our concert tickets. It was sad to not have been able to say "goodbye" to Jon's dad, but we were grateful for the time we had been able to be with him over the last year and a half of his life, and that he was able to live such a full, long and good life. He has left a great legacy of kindness and integrity for our family.
After spending the next month or so taking care of estate things, we took another planned trip to London and Paris. Two of our kids and their families had made plans to meet up at Disneyland Paris, so after spending a week in London (we had never been there, and we loved everything about it!) we took the train to Paris to be with them. It was joyful!
When we returned, we made the decision to put Jon's dad's house on the market. We still didn't know what our plan would be after that or if we'd find a house to buy, but we felt strongly we should proceed. (More details about that in the next post) But putting it on the market required some big renovations, especially the removal of most of the "popcorn" ceilings, which had some asbestos in them. So that led to yet another trip!
While the ceiling removal work was being done we had to be out of the house so we drove up to Oregon for an aunt's 80th birthday. We realized we'd be there on the one year anniversary of my dad's passing. He had been a fire lookout on a mountain called Mule Peak in Eastern Oregon for a couple of summers when he was in college so we decided to hike to the top of this epic peak in honor of him. Hardest hike we've done in a while, but so worth it! The views were amazing and the connection to my dad was felt in every step of the 11 mile hike!
We returned home tired but proud of such a whopper of a hike! The next mountain we had to climb was selling the house! Which leads us to the next big decision in our life... (see the next post). :)