Breaking the news

We contacted a friend of ours who was now a real estate agent and told him to put the house on the market on April 1st. In the meantime we had to break the news to my employers (also dear friends) and our respective families. Jack's mother was delighted. "It's about time," she said. She'd had dreams like that herself. Had she disapproved, we wouldn't have changed our minds but we would have worried a lot more about the wisdom of what we were doing.

My parents looked at us as if we were crazy. They knew we'd done mad things in the past, but this was beyond the pale. They were products of the depression years and safety and security were important above all - and spending the equity in our house seemed like the ultimate folly. Our girls had some trepidation about being out there on their own, but they did their best to hide it and never were anything but supportive. In the end our whole family menage came through and did everything they could to help us make our dream a reality. I bless them all.

Our friends were excited, some envious, some completely flumoxed - what can we be thinking of? We knew we'd be missing each other - but at least it wasn't going to be a permanent move. We'd be back - and then - who could tell?