Leaving Florida...
Within a week, I became engaged, my mother flew North, I drove a pickup truck like a boss, and I caught another flight to retrieve my father. It's our last night in Florida, the house a skeleton of the sixteen years we've lived in it. My father sits alone in a recliner, walls outlined in nicotine of memories from years past.
My room has the bed I slept on intermittently since I was 18. I have an ottoman as a bedside table. The blanket is wrong.
The rooms are mostly empty, colonies of dust woven into the green carpet beneath where furniture has sat for so many years. I plugged in a little lamp on the floor so we could see in the dark, my mother's nightlights gone and packed, somewhere traveling North.
They forgot my grandmother's fan, so we'll put that in the rented van as we drive away from this state. We'll drive back to my mother, who's alone in her condo, wondering what all is happening. Her flamingo is on her balcony.
I know this will calm down soon. I quit my third job, tidying that up this past week. I'm looking forward to being better able to balance myself and my life, versus the constant thought of hustling. I am so tired, but thankful this is happening. I can focus on my health as well as my upcoming marriage.
It's bizarre that I flew into Jacksonville for what could've been the last time today. When I pulled into the driveway, I saw that the Holy Mother was gone. I knew this was really happening.
My life is going to be drastically different with them closer to me. I know this is better for the three of us, now Fidget, too, in the mix. But tonight, as I still wait for my hair to dry because of this ridiculous humidity, I still expect my mother to toddle in here or Socks to jump onto the bed. But both of them are in Maryland.
Goodbye, Florida. Thanks for giving me stories. Thanks for making me appreciate living close to the Mason Dixon. Thanks for giving me a safehaven for many years from the bustle. Thanks for introducing me to weird food and customs I can only find here.
Thanks for housing my parents for so many years. Thanks for starting their retirement. Thanks for this non-cookie cutter house I've come to love. Thanks for making my hair blonder and me more tan. Thanks for teaching me about hurricane protocol, how to escape an alligator, and what frogs sound like when mating.
No lie, we're definitely not coming back here soon. But it's an awesome chapter in our family history...
... we'll now start another one, back in Maryland, 25 years later.