After 13 years of living on Bone Lake and having turned a cabin into a home, Marina fell and ripped lots of things in her left rotor cuff. That forced a decision we had been trying to avoid for several years: if something like that were to happen to me, as a deaf-blind person Marina would be hung. There is no place to go these days. Assisted living is full. The senior apartments in downtown Osceola have a waiting list of more than 200 people. It might be possible to get into a nursing home but with a Seeing Eye Dog? And I’m not ready for one-room living. So we bought a free standing brand new town home in a development (the kind we swore we’d never live in) on the east end of Osceola. It’s within 10 minutes of Hannah, our youngest daughter, and half an hour closer to Britta, our eldest. Marina could be there with outside assistance that is closer than it is to our lake place.
Our daughters spotted a potential neighbor problem with the first place we looked at, so our chosen home is located between a home with gardens and rainwater collected in barrels for the gardens (a sign of the kind of people we are likely to like very much) and a young family on the other side. We met the Mom and she seems quite nice. Those discoveries lifted our spirits. The house is scheduled to be finished and ready for us the end of May. Our home has a closing date of June 22nd. It sold in two days for our asking price to a guy who wanted to get out of The Cities and who works from home. Bravo to our super real estate agent Sarah Cook!
I will miss the lake. I will miss cutting and splitting wood and hauling it to the house for the wood stove. I will miss niceties like Georgetown Township’s maintenance guy, Boyd Fritinger’s thoughtful installing of a “Watch For Pedestrians” sign at the corner of our road and the County Road. That was done without being asked. Try that in a big town! I’ve had the privilege of chairing Georgetown’s election caucus which, to me, is the most basic building block of local government and of our great national experiment in self-governance. I will miss mowing both my own property and our shared lake property. Our home boasts an array of flowering bushes, bulbs, and perennials, as well as many maple, elm and oak trees. Half a pond extends into our property and hearing the frogs is fun. Birds? We’ve had them in flocks. Marina’s first Seeing Eye Dog, Gretel, is buried in the back alongside Thomas, the cat, who “supervised” Andy’s feeding at close hand. Surprisingly, Andy didn’t mind his pal’s observing one bit. Oh, and Harold W. McCarthy is buried out back, too. His remains were just left in our Luck rental house, so we gave him a good Christian burial. You should see the eyes of people when I tell them I hd to evict Harold from the basement of the house. And it has been a place where Marina could walk safely because there has been little traffic on our dead-end road. The road has some elevations so it has been a good place to walk but also get your heart rate up, too.
We know Osceola and there should be plenty of positives for us there. But it’s the last stop, or at least it better be because we have a very demanding move for everything in this house. It’s not just moving, it’s downsizing. It involves selling things, donating things, and tossing things. It’s not my idea of fun. But Marcie Marquardt is loaning us her enclosed trailer and the great people of Wolf Creek United Methodist Church have offered to join our children and grandchildren in caravanning stuff from Bone Lake to Osceola.
A brief reminder of two things: May 5th sees the change of my short story broadcasts from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. on WPCA-FM (91.3). I’m reading a couple of stories and will sign books at River Stone Book Shop in downtown Osceola (205 N. Cascade, right near the stop light).
AND I’m tickled to tell you that Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives of Two Seeing Eye Dogs, has been seeing lots of purchases and readers on line. Marina’s book is outselling all of my books and I’m delighted. Bring the readers!