Blog the 'P' part

Blog the 'P' part

And how it all began! For me.....

As Harry mentioned we had one of our regular meetings with 'John'. My previous birthday I had turned 50 and I was ruminating - is it time to slow down, scale back, work less and settle in to middle age or did I want to still 'go and do something'. Ever since we closed down HP WorkShop I missed the flexibility of being my own boss. I would like to have my own business again but what would I do? The conversation started around the table and the “I think you and Harry are getting too complacent” comment was uttered. A spark was lit in me. I had options!! Life for the next 20 years didn't have to be punching a clock somewhere for 50 weeks a year and having 2 weeks of vacation. God had more in store for me, for us. Options to spend more time with family in UK and AZ, places to visit, experiences to have. People to touch, to help, to spread the gospel. I was ready right there and then to 'GO'!! We got in the car and then Harry's and my conversation began, it's still continuing......

But we had a house with a mortgage, jobs, pets, community and friends all around us. We led a home church even. We had to have a plan and queen of the lists wanted it all to happen ASAP so I could cross things off and be on my way. Marriages do not work like that though. Life does not go at my speed either and certainly God does not!

First was getting the house sold. I won't go into all the details but the short version is it took 2 and a half years. We started trying to sell it ourselves, the 'need' to maximize on the sale was very important at the time. That morphed into Property Guys, a company that helps home owners to sell. That didn't work either. Time for Bonnie, way overdue, but we had to work though the process of letting go I guess. Bonnie is for Harry and I the 'Pulse of Chemainus'. She's a realtor with ReMax who we met before we even moved to Canada. Bonnie has been instrumental in buying, selling and renting our Chemainus homes for 17 years,  even providing a reference that has helped us with securing the house sits we're off to do. During the time it took for the house to sell prayers were answered. Our 20 year old cat passed away without having to be moved or the worse option, you know the one. We did loose 'Maggie' Harry's canine buddy, very quickly due to bone cancer and buried her in the back yard along with the rest of the gang. In fact when the house sold and we were moments away from leaving the property for the last time it wasn't the building but our 'family' all buried in the garden that was tough to say good bye to. We walked down to the 'back 40', holding hands and said our final good byes to Sadie and Scoot our two Arizona dogs, Nairobi and her sister Euphrates the cats I drove up to Canada with in our VW bus. VerVer, the 'Jimmy Dean' of cats, too fast to live and too young to die, run over one night shortly after we'd returned home from a visit to UK. Of course Maggie was there too! Yep that was a tough evening.

Meanwhile we were both working at the hotel. Harry was the Maintenance Manager and me Assistant GM.