Life and Death June to Nov 2020

 

June 2020 - My first stop was Skidway Island State Park, near Savannah Georgia.  It’s a beautiful park, with plenty of trees and very large shady campsites.  I stayed a week, mostly hanging out in the park.  I hung a bird feeder and attracted a wide variety of birds to my site.  It was quite enjoyable just hanging out watching them.  There were plenty of trails and the park was only about half full.  I did venture to nearby Wormsloe Historic site.  It features the ruins of a colonial estate, and a few trails, but mainly its known for the beautiful tree lined drive.  The entrance road goes under a canopy of live oak trees with Spanish moss draped all over the overhead branches. It was almost like a living tunnel. I also ventured into Savannah, which is known for its beautiful parks all over the city.  I mostly just walked around, starting near the waterfront area, with its busy bars and restaurants.  When I noticed most people on the crowded streets and businesses weren't wearing masks, I decided I had seen enough of downtown. (Remember, this was the summer of 2020 at the height of the pandemic) I stopped at the Tybee Island Lighthouse, but there wasn't much to see.  It was right on the beach, but I'm not a beachy person, so I headed back to the woods.  It was honestly too hot and humid to do much else. 

My next stop was Baker Creek State Park, in South Carolina.   I arrived later in the day and after getting all set up, I was just sitting down for dinner when my brother texted me.  I needed to come home ASAP, it looked like my mother had a stroke and it was bad. I left my camper there, drove all night and made it to the hospital early the next morning. I had been getting updates all night and it was grim.  My mother died just a few hours later.  I will be forever grateful that I was by her side and was able to have a very brief conversation with her just before she passed.  As a former hospice volunteer, I know it is not uncommon for the person to have a fleeting moment of consciousness and clarity at the very end.  I thought a lot about her during that mad dash home. While we didn't always get along, the past 6 months living with her had been so wonderful.  I will always be grateful to have that time together and that our relationship had grown closer.  I have a lot to thank my mother for, even if I didn't always appreciate it.  She definitely made me the strong, independent woman I am today as she set that example for me.  I own my love of traveling to her as well, and I was following her footsteps when I set off across the country in my RV years before.  She put that idea in my head when she retired early and bought a little travel trailer and headed out on her own almost 20 years before I did. 

We buried my mother next to my grandparents in Vinton VA, although her wish was to be cremated and have her ashes scattered in Cades Cove in Tennessee.  It was my aunt, her sister, who wanted her buried and at the time I thought it was better to bring comfort to the living, as I knew my aunt was grieving terribly.  Had I known the enormous financial cost to have 2 funeral homes involved as well as the cost to transport a body across 4 states, I wish I had done as my mom asked.  I know she would not have wanted to spend that kind of money, as my mom was pretty frugal.  

 I stopped and picked up my camper and found a campground near my aunt’s house in NC, about 2 hours from Vinton.  After the funeral, everyone met at her house.   It was nice to see the rest of my family; some of the kids, I had never even met.  It was a really nice afternoon and it made me appreciate family even more.  Since I had been traveling so much for the past decade really, I had grown apart from everyone.  Of course, keeping in touch is a two-way street.   

So, my plans had once again been changed by circumstances beyond my control.  Back to Florida I went, to settle my mom’s affairs.  Due to Covid, everything was backlogged.  Probate would take 3 to 4 months.  It took a month just to take care of all her personal items, paperwork, banks, utilities, insurance etc.  Everyone was working from home; telephone wait times were crazy, and it was really hard to get things done.   Now there's nothing to do but sit and wait.  So, I had plenty of time think about my next step. 

First thing I decided to do was explore Florida a bit more, with my camper.  Although I grew up here, that doesn't mean I've seen all of it.  I did two short stays to the gulf coast: one to Oscar Scherer State Park, near Sarasota and a really fun eagle watching trip near Sanibel Island.  Both trips were mainly bird watching adventures with the 2nd one to hang out all day watching 2 fledgling eagles.  I also decided to come back to Skidway in Georgia and next to Mistletoe, near Macon.  I headed a bit north to find cooler weather.  Even at the end of Sept, it’s still just too hot to do much in Florida.   Georgia had near perfect weather, with the average being 70 vs the 90+ at home.  

My mom’s estate finally made it through probate in October, and my brother and I decided to sell her house.  I knew investors were buying up property, so I was really happy that a nice young couple got it instead.  They fell in love with the house the instant they saw it, which just seemed right, since my mother felt the same way.  She often said how much she loved her house and that it was her favorite of all the houses she had lived in.  

So, with all my business in Florida finally settled, I decided to reclaim my house in Tennessee.  It had been rental property for 20 years and I decided to settle down, for a while at least, and see if I could wait out the pandemic.