5/31/2009 I Am Incredibly.....

I am incredibly THANKFUL. GRATEFUL. Yesterday I met someone who made me realize just how fortunate Bob and I are to be to be living our dream. How fortunate we are to be embarking on a journey not many make. Well, not many speaking in the grand scheme of things that is.

I was in the laundry room yesterday starting the first of several loads and I struck up a conversation with the two ladies in there with, "This sure is a nice FamCamp isn't it?" One lady who was of Asian persuasion just smiled and nodded. The other lady was ready to talk. I don't know where she is from but I found out that she calls this FamCamp home for right now. Her husband recently retired and they are in the process of figuring out what's next. They don't own a sticks and bricks house and are presently living in a tent. By choice and its quite an elaborate set up with TV, computer, a kitchen area, all the comforts of, well, home. He wants to buy a house or at least rent an apartment. She wants an RV and wants to see places and do things and wants to meet people. She wants this very badly and with good reason. I don't know how old she is and I'm terrible at trying to guess someone's age. She did say in passing that she has a child that is graduating this year so that would put her at the very least her late thirties. (Her kids live with their dad for stability) Assuming, because she was in the service, that she didn't start her family at 18 but probably her early to mid twenties, then it would safe to say she is in her early to mid forties. Of course she could have had said child at 15 and in that case she's in her mid thirties. See, I really am bad at guessing ages.

Anyway......I asked her if she had been to downtown Seattle yet to see the sights and it is here that I learned even more about her. She replied, "No, I don't do those kinds of things because I can't walk for long periods of time." I looked at her and couldn't see any tell tale signs of a disability or even a cane or anything like that so I just took it for what it is worth and went on that we had just been and how much we enjoyed it. I further explained that we were on our way to Alaska and that we were fulltimers. When I said "fulltimers" well, she just lit up. The questions started and she told me how much she wanted to do the same thing and she wanted an RV and to travel and she just went on and on. Not in a bad way, she was so excited about the prospect of traveling that her enthusiasm just bubbled over. I just marveled at her excitement about the whole thing. She said that she had just started researching all the options open to them but that she had some convincing of her husband to do.

In was in the next part of our conversation that why she is so eager to hit the road came to light. She's dying. She has three different lung diseases and heart failure. The doctor's had given her to next month to live but she assured me it wasn't going to happen then. She's not ready, she has things to do, places to go and people to meet. She's not going to sit around and wait for the day, she's going to LIVE life to the fullest while she's here. My whole being swelled with admiration for this woman. I wondered to myself if I could/would be so,,,,I guess the word is accepting of this fate. Would I, instead of planning my next adventure, wallow in self pity? Since she talked so openly about her lot in life I felt comfortable in saying to her, "I can't imagine what I would do if I got news like that". She said she cried, alot, at first, then got angry and then decided to make the best of the time she had left.

I hope she gets the RV, I hope she travels and sees the sights she so desperately wants to see. I hope her husband helps her realize her dream.

She made me realize how fortunate we are. In that short time in a laundry room she gave me a new outlook on my own life. I'm hoping that I now appreciate even more the opportunity, and the ability, that Bob and I have to be able to go to the places, do the things and meet the people.

I didn't even get her name, but she made a big impact and I'm glad we shared those minutes.