I talked to my friend Sally yesterday.  She moved to Hattisburg, Mississippi a couple of years ago to be near her daughters.  But Ernest wanted to return to Pryor, so they sold their new house, and for the time being have moved in with one of her daughters.  "Such a relief," Sally iterated--and said that owning a house was like a noose around your neck to keep you from moving when you want to.  You can't just up and leave when you own a house.

Ernest has some medical issues--he has a wonderful doctor at the VA hospital there who is treating him.  But when things get straightened out, they are free to stay, or leave.  The house is sold.  First step first--sell the house.  Then you can do whatever you want to do.

Our lives are controlled by stages.  First you marry and are free to stay, to go, to do whatever you want to do.  Then you have a child, or two, or three and are involved in the things small children do.  What you and hubby liked to do is lost in a distant past.  Everything is about the little children.  The third stage is soccer, baseball, gymnastics, piano lessons, etc., etc.  Fourth stage is teenagers--and the drain on your emotions that is involved.  What are they doing?  Where are they?  When are they coming in?  You loose control once they have a car.  This stage goes on and on until they leave.

The fifth stage is when they marry.  Everybody comes home for Christmas, but after a while, that vanishes.  They are at the spouse's home, or perhaps the second child comes home with all their children, while your third child is hitch-hiking across America during spring break--but things are manageable on a small scale.  Home is still home, and sometimes everyone is there at once.

But slowly, that ceases.  Everyone is staying at their homes for the holidays--and you go to their house.  They don't want to go to your house--they are starting "the stages of life" for themselves.  Their lives.  And your family begins to break up into new and separate families.  You aren't the center of their lives any more.  And that's the way it should be.  And the last stage: you don't need the big house anymore.  You need less to take care of.  And you begin to evaluate just what you really need--and realize that it isn't much.  As for me, an AirStream is sounding pretty good.  Maybe that's why so many retirees buy one and hit the road.  Once again fancy free.  Your kids aren't coming "Home" again.  They have their own homes.  And so it goes.  It's the cycle of life.