And So It Begins....

This is so typical for me at this point in my life, starting over because I can't find the note I wrote a year or so ago when I started my previous blog, "Jude K. et al...." I can't get into the old site and start where I left off because I simply don't recall what I used as a password.

Bummer.

Somehow it seems right, though, to get a new name and a new address since I'm on the verge of starting a new life.

If you remember, my husband died suddenly on January 24th, 2009, shocking me, our family and friends. We soldiered on, however, and last August I started imagining myself walking away from this revisionist paradise of Sarasota, Florida. I let the idea smolder, not wanting to make a decision in haste, and in late November I got the sign I'd been looking for pushing me to action.

My landlord notified me that he was putting "my" house up for sale; that's all I needed.

After five years of relishing the life of leisure I've enjoyed in Sarasota I'm heading home to Michigan.

That's where two of my three daughters and a very special niece are and where all of my grandchildren, actual and faux, hang their hats.

I've found a space to call home in Clinton Township! It's right where I rather pictured myself when I thought of moving back. It's spacious enough for one, certainly, and will easily accommodate visiting friends or grands. There's an attached garage so the Michigan winter won't be too much of a bother, she says hopefully!? And there's a fireplace for toasting myself on cold winter nights. The complex has a beautiful pool, a couple of hot tubs, a sauna, an exercise room and a stylish clubhouse should I ever care to throw a party hosting more than four people.

But mostly it has immediate and unlimited access to shopping and restaurants and movies and theatre. If I'm bored it'll because I want to be!

It's almost identically equidistant from my two daughters and, at twenty-five minutes of ride time, entirely do-able.

A good number of family and friends live in that direction too so I think I'll have plenty of social interaction when I'm not signed up for sleepovers with the kids.

In that context, it doesn't seem TOO crazy to walk away from one of the most beautiful places on earth for the rest of a lifetime outside Detroit, right??

Crazy or not it's what I'm doing. And I'm doing it now... moving day is February 12!

Yup, in the middle of winter I'm heading north alone to carve a new space for myself. It's in the Big Book of Judy, "Be fearless," it says. And so I shall.

I've got plenty of nice warm boots, big sweaters, lined coats. I've got furniture and all sorts of goods to create a haven that's mine-all-mine. I've got the heart to Make It Happen. All I need now are fair winds and the grace of God.

Tom'll be helping. As my personal angel he'll see that I get happily settled. It's what he would have wanted me to do, that I know without a doubt.

Fearless, that's me as I enter my sixty-fifth year. It says it right here in fine print!