My sister Susan and her husband Martin have lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains for many years. They fell in love with, and bought, a unique round house that was, at one time, a water tower. The original owner had dismantled the tower where it stood in Sunnyvale, numbered each plank, and re assembled it on a concrete pad in the midst of a forest just off Old Summit Road, and clad it entire thing in redwood shakes. I still remember seeing it for the first time when my sister and I went to the open house. At the time it was owned by a young, hippie girl. Incense and candles burned while soft flute music wafted through the house as we dreamily checked it out and then walked in the surrounding forest. Birds twittered in the peaceful silence. There was an unmistakable air of serenity about the place. I could tell by the look on Sue’s face that she was smitten and that Martin would be too. That was over 20 years ago.
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| The "Water Tower" |
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| The interior or the "Water Tower" |
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| Serenity | | | |
Now Sue and Martin are older and tireder and not in as good health as they once were. A place like that requires tons of upkeep, most of it heavy duty. Plus, in the intervening years, traffic on Highway 17 has become almost unbearable, especially on the weekends. It was inevitable. They would soon have to move to the “flatlands,” as they called it. Then in January Sue was diagnosed with ALS. That was it. They decided to sell their beloved mountain home and move to a little southern California beach town, Carlsbad, to be near their son and his family who live in Encinitas.
Sue and Martin are looking forward to spending more time with her grandchildren and living in the home they found in Carlsbad. It is beautiful, almost new, and best of all, all on one floor. No more stairs. No more spending hours pulling weeds or repairing rotting wood. No more electric outages due to mountain storms. No more bumper to bumper traffic just to go to the grocery store.
I am conflicted. I know they are doing the right thing, moving to be near their son and family but I am sad to see them go. I will miss my sister more than I can express. We have no other siblings. Even though she is my baby sister she has always been the steady one, my rock. Now I can’t be there for her when she needs me most. I do intend to fly down as often as I can, though.
One thing I could do was give them a send-off dinner. I invited my daughter Brenda, my grandson Tony and my nephew, Patrick, who flew up to help his parents drive down to Carlsbad. There would be 6 of us. My town house has very limited living and dining space but we would manage, darn it, and we did. It was cozy all right but we didn’t care. Luckily, it was a warm evening so we could sit out on my patio before dinner. I served grilled salmon, grilled vegetables and red Quinoa with toasted almonds. For dessert I kept it simple, berries and whipped cream.
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| It was a squeeze, but we managed! Martin, Patrick, Sue, Brenda & Tony |
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| My sister Susan, Nephew Patrick and brother-in-law, Martin |
Sue texted me that they have arrived in Carlsbad. The house is beautiful, they are tired and their cat, Tiny is freaked out. I am a little freaked out too. I miss them so much already. I can’t wait ‘til September when I fly down to see them in their new digs. Change is hard but that's part of life, I guess.
