Why are we on this journey? Even now as I sit at my laptop, in a 32 foot RV parked in a camp ground in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; miles from my home, I ask myself this question. The answer is simple; for my mom. Mom, aka Sabrina, raised my sister and I on the back of the dog grooming and boarding business she started in 1990. My father was mostly out of the picture, but with some help from my grandparents, she made it work.
My grandfather, her father, passed in 1997 following a long hospital stay. Following that, as my grandmother’s health began to go, mom made arrangements and built a shop for her business at our house where she could be close by in case my grandmother (her mom, aka “Granny”) needed anything. In 2001, Granny passed. As far as I can remember, that was the last time mom left our property for more than a few hours.
The blog for this site will be a place for stories filling in the many gaps in the timeline. There are so many moments, tiny in the grand scheme, that amount to a life of small highs and deep valleys. Friendships and relationships that came and went, often in spectacular displays worthy of stories all their own. And with the passing of my Great Aunt Eunice and the arrest of a “son she chose”, that’s where this story truly begins. It’d been 2 years since Nathan’s arrest, and she and I sat alone eating dinner together in the house she’d raised 2 kids when I asked her what her plans were for retirement. Type 1 diabetes, a heart murmur, degenerative bone disorder, and scoliosis were beginning to make the physically-demanding job she had a painstaking trudge to financially survive and with every passing day going to work, coming home, and sitting in her recliner to cry, she was stuck in a cycle with no end in sight. That night she told me she didn’t have a retirement plan. She had no savings to speak of, and more importantly, she saw no world where she could ever do anything but work, no matter how painful it got.
Some time after that conversation, mom was home, rummaging through Netflix for something to watch, and she decided to check out the show Virgin River. That became all she watched, for days. She watched the two available seasons multiple times. Then, on the night of the release of season 3, she woke up at 3:00am to get right into the new season as soon as possible. She joined Facebook groups, followed the stars, and fell in love with the stories from the show. Some people grew frustrated by her perceived obsession. I, however, saw something in my mom for the first time since as far as I can remember; hope. I saw hope in the weary eyes of the mother I thought had given up. She started to realize and remember the world beyond our gravel driveway.
The hope she found came from the story of Jack and Mel, sure, but not in the way you might think. She didn’t imagine herself in the scenario, that would destroy it. No. In his portrayal of Jack, Martin Hinderson, reminded her that even broken people are worthy and capable of love, happiness, and deserving of the life they choose. She followed Martin on social media, seeking to learn more about this new possibility. Over dinner, we talked about his adventures sailing, his dog Sammy, and how happy she was that he’s in a relationship where he seems happy. I listened to the stories, the news, and the updates and welcomed this excitement in her voice like rays of warm sunshine on a dark and gloomy day.
For her 61st birthday, she bought herself a Cameo session with Martin. I’d planned to buy it but she couldn’t wait for her actual birthday and decided her birth month was long enough to have waited to request it. She was so excited watching the video response over and over, sending it to me to download to make sure she could keep it. His kindness and the message he shared affirmed what she’d long felt; she wants to be his friend. She wants to meet Martin, the person, and introduce herself and share the light he has brought into her life.
Soon after her birthday, mom shared with me her dream. She wants to retire and travel the world. Sell the property, buy an RV, and go back to her roots as a nature lover and adventurer. Without telling her, I took this message as the assignment it was to be and for mother’s day, 2022, she and I drove to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to look at an RV she’d found that seemed to fit all of her wants. She didn’t know how serious I was until we sat down to sign the paperwork and I showed her the money I’d just transferred to her account that we were driving home in a like-new 2021 32ft. Class-c motorhome that checked every box she had put in front of it. She already knew her first trip; to Vancouver, Canada where Martin will be filming season 5 of Virgin River.