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One of the harder stories to relate to others, be it family, friends or acquaintances, is how Roger
and I came to the decision to move from Dallas, Texas to New England. The story is difficult because it
all just sort of happened, but deep down inside, though my heart was full with friends and family, the endless concrete of Dallas was stripping at my soul and spirit. So in the fall
of 1999, a random thought was spoken out loud, which lead to a larger conversation, not
in a gripping sort of way, but in a meandering, what-if kind of way. Where would we move? Near the ocean, of
course! Okay, Atlantic or Pacific? North or South? Up until this point we'd only thought of perhaps moving to a different house in the same neighborhood.
At the time I was working for a telecom company with offices
on both sides of the continent, so a quick check of temperatures in Miami
quickly eliminated a move Southeast. A
quick check of West Coast home prices quickly eliminated a move to California,
unless you enjoy living in a trailer that is.
Then a sort of AHA moment. Boston!
It’s on the water, my company had offices there, we have family
there. Boston it is! Seriously, it happened that quickly. The tip-toe into the water came when our
friend, Juanna, agreed to fly with me to Boston just to have a look around. It was the week between Christmas and New
Years and baby was it cold! It was a
quick trip just to get a glimpse and that’s pretty much all we got, but it certainly fueled the fire.
Next thing we know, Roger and I have a map of the Boston area spread
out on our pool table. Let’s see, Nortel (my former employer)
is located in Billerica, northwest of Boston.
Here’s the ocean. Let’s start right
in between the two. Roger began calling the chamber of commerce of various
towns just to have a chat. Out of this
came the decision that we’d move to Haverhill.
Had we ever been there? No. Had we even been to Boston or anywhere near
it? Other than my brief trip, no. Didn’t
matter, this was the plan!
All along, the picture above had been hanging in our home
for about 3 years. This was actually a poster that I purchased when Roger was very ill and in the hospital.
He’d been in the hospital so long that I decided we needed to
decorate. I came across this picture and was instantly drawn to the soothing colors and pastoral waterfront
scene. I brought it to the hospital and tacked it to the wall. After extensive surgery, resulting
in a foot-long scar down his abdomen, he finally came home. We were so happy
that he was finally coming home that we took the poster and had it framed.
This picture will come into play again in 2004.
Our next step was to book an actual vacation so we could really check out the area, and, to buy a home. Yep, we flew into Boston the last week of
June, 2000 for the sole purpose of buying a house in Haverhill, Massachusetts. We also took in a Redsox game, got horribly lost several times over our five
day stay, but still we were undeterred.
The
next couple of days we spent with a realtor with whom we had connected with prior to
our trip. Within 48 hours we found our
new home! Also within that same time
period we happened to pick up a local paper with a job listing for Roger. A quick phone call, followed by an interview and job offer while I sat in the parking lot.
Click, click, click…one by one all was falling into place. Our home in Richardson sold lickety-split and on Labor Day weekend, less than 1 year from the initial “conversation”, with 2 dogs, 1 cat and both vehicles, we were moved into our new-to-us home that was built in 1900.
Click, click, click…one by one all was falling into place. Our home in Richardson sold lickety-split and on Labor Day weekend, less than 1 year from the initial “conversation”, with 2 dogs, 1 cat and both vehicles, we were moved into our new-to-us home that was built in 1900.
Part 2 is here: http://frontseatimages.blogspot.com/2015/03/from-texas-to-prince-edward-island.html
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