{"id":544,"date":"2008-07-29T07:14:53","date_gmt":"2008-07-29T11:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=544"},"modified":"2008-07-29T07:41:36","modified_gmt":"2008-07-29T11:41:36","slug":"movin-on-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=544","title":{"rendered":"Movin&#8217; on Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">Remember the 1970\/1980 sitcom &#8211; Movin on Up &#8211; \u00c2\u00a0with the infamous Jeffersons? I was humming this song a lot the last month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">I bet you are humming it now. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">You see, these past few weeks I have been helping a friend pack her house. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0This was no simple task as she has lived there for over 20 years. \u00c2\u00a0She moved here with her husband so they could be close to the boys in the retirement years. \u00c2\u00a0He died of cancer in 1999. \u00c2\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">She is now 79 and in fairly good health, volunteers regularly at a local hospital, and still enjoys time with her boys and friends. \u00c2\u00a0She takes good care of herself and, some days, even wears me out.\u00c2\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">Her house has been on the market for almost two years. \u00c2\u00a0It was getting to be more than she could handle as she gracefully aged. \u00c2\u00a0She debated about taking it off the market but got an unexpected call from the realtor several weeks ago that a couple from West Virginia wanted to buy it. \u00c2\u00a0They just needed assurances that she could move out before the end of the month.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">She quickly bought the new patio home she admired from afar for so long. \u00c2\u00a0It, too, was still on the market.\u00c2\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">As she began packing, she took a close look at the things she kept all these years and decided to give some to a charity group I support in Columbia. \u00c2\u00a0I made several trips there with a car full of items that were still in good condition and could be used by others. \u00c2\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">I take what will likely be my last load this morning.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">I LOVE to move so it was exciting to me when she took me up on my offer to help her pack. \u00c2\u00a0I got to know her even better because she shared stories with me about memories that were triggered as we boxed things up. I did not know her husband well but his life came alive with those stories. \u00c2\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">Her new home is beautiful and it is amazing how everything fit into the new place. \u00c2\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">She brought her cat to his new home yesterday. \u00c2\u00a0He had been staying at the local veterinarian&#8217;s place while the movers came. They are going to love their new digs. \u00c2\u00a0Many of the neighbors have already come by and greeted her.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">All the hard work paid off with a fresh start for her and lots of great stories shared between us.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">My wish for you today<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\"> is that you help a friend move when you have the opportunity. \u00c2\u00a0You are likely to hear some interesting stories as you give that person a hand.\u00c2\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia\">~ Joellen\u00c2\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->  <!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remember the 1970\/1980 sitcom &#8211; Movin on Up &#8211; \u00c2\u00a0with the infamous Jeffersons? I was humming this song a lot the last month. I bet you are humming it now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,16,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friendship","category-life-events","category-living-life-to-the-fullest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}