Today I went down to our cottage to meet a workman replacing a broken window. Since I was unsure (still am) whether this was an attempted break-in, I let two neighbors know there might be some "issues" in the neighborhood. Both these women I've known for years. One is a widow, re-married, and the other divorced, recently retired. They each had 2 children, a boy and a girl.
The widow has had many tragedies in her family: her husband was killed in an auto accident and her brother in a motorcycle accident. Her mother died after a liver transplant. Her father re-married and moved away and now he and has wife are dead. Her son moved away, is divorced. Her daughter moved far away, has one child. Now her only sister was unceremoniously downsized and is moving away. I realized this friend has few relatives here: her husband is divorced and I don't think they see much of his children. She seemed depressed when we spoke and I think it was the loss of the sister that really hurts. They were very different, the sister a wild child, divorced, no kids. I think my friend thought they would get closer as they got older but it never happened.
The other neighbor has lived alone since her husband left her many years ago. Her one daughter lives in Kansas (a two days drive, she says). Her son who is about a 4 hours drive away is planning to move to Oregon to be closer to his wife's family. She was contemplative when we spoke, reminiscing about how fast the years go and how scary it is to get old. Her Plan B is to buy a home near her daughter but she is not crazy about living "in the middle of nowhere" in Kansas.
Our small Bay community is sort of like an extended family with an active community association. Our daughter thinks I could downsize and move there at some point because I "love the water" but it is too remote for me, also too far from a hospital.
