A change in place

Richard and I have been steadily disassembling our lives over the past couple of months. In just a few days, we’ll hop into our camper van and head west to officially embark on an adventure: a new life in a new place, which feels quite something at our advancing ages.

Closing on our condo is scheduled for Tuesday. A nice couple decided that the top floor overlooking Hog Inlet, Waties Island, and the grand Atlantic is the place for them. We’ll miss the spacious skies, amber sea oats, sunrises, moonrises, and ever-changing beaches. We won’t miss the climb up those stairs. It’s a particularly big change for Richard, whose mother bought this condo back in the 1980s. The modest third-floor walk-up was his vacation destination for decades, a place to entertain himself, his children, and his grandchildren. When his mom passed, she passed it to him. When I reappeared in his life after forty-odd years, it became our home. But now we’re trading this precious spot at the Point in Cherry Grove for the vast skies and grounded mountains of New Mexico!

Over the next few days, we’ll be sweeping the last of our belongings into a moving van, including too many paintings and photographs and a couple of easels; shipping our car across the country along with too many jars of honey that Richard’s bees produced years ago (not to mention the many jars he bought from local beekeepers); and driving seven or eight days straight to Santa Fe. That’s the plan, anyway. One can always dream!

There’s a large artist community there, and we’ll be house-hunting for a single-level home with studio space—finally. I can’t wait to be a small fish in a big pond of galleries and art associations, dragging Richard along to art receptions to meet new friends and new experiences. Our belongings will start out in a couple of storage units, and we’ll be staying in Airbnbs until we can buy something. Maybe we’ll bump into Marcy and Gabriel now and then, and I can’t wait for my first visit to Crestone and maybe the Grand Canyon.

Meanwhile, the disassembling is a messy process, both internally and externally. I’m lying in the living room right now in the dark, not sleeping, knowing I must leave this comfortable couch to its new owners, who will be doing their final walk-through on Tuesday. I’m surrounded by boxes and unboxed stuff, and it seems impossible that this job will ever be finished.

A special shout-out to Robin, who in recent months has helped us with housecleaning and has fulfilled her promise to assist with organizing and boxing. I’m convinced she’s an actual angel, placed here to help and gently guide us according to our wishes and needs. We are so lucky, and grateful.

I’m sure we’ll face some big challenges getting situated with healthcare and daily living, not to mention simply getting the TV set up somewhere with a new sofa for Richard to feel at home on. But I think a self-imposed adventure is just what we need right now, a welcome contrast to the externally imposed challenges life is bound to bring soon enough. Onward and upward!

Photos above are from a September 2025 visit to New Mexico with my two sons, including (top) to artist Georgia O’Keefe’s house in Abiquiú.