Aunt Dolly goes to Florida.

As I type this, my Aunt Dolly is in my cousin S's car, on her way to Florida. My cousin S has lived there for years now, and he's been wanting my aunt to move down there for the longest time. He has never been able to convince her to do that, until just recently, when a string of house robberies right on her own street scared the daylights out of her. And believe me, it takes a lot to scare the daylights out of my 94-yr-old Aunt Dolly.

She already has a buyer for her house (the neighbor across the street) and as much as she knows she should leave that neighborhood, she doesn't want to leave. My grandfather built that house in 1922, and it's been the family home ever since. My aunt is the only one still living in it, however... everyone else has either passed away or moved away.

It's much too big a house for just my aunt... two kitchens, two bathrooms, two pantries, eight bedrooms, living room, dining room, enclosed front porch, plus all the "extra" rooms in the basement (play rooms, wine cellar, family room)..... just too much house for one little aunt to take care of, even if it were still in a prime neighborhood, which sadly, it just isn't.

I would like to be a little fly in my cousin's car, as he's driving my aunt down to Florida. I can't even remember the last time my aunt has been out of that neighborhood, much less out of NY state. My only hope is that she gets her heart into the move, or as much of her heart as she possibly can. I know she doesn't want to leave that house, and I know at her age, it's got to be one of the hardest things she's ever done. But the time has come for her to just move on. (Actually, the time came about twenty-five or thirty years ago, but she just dug her heels in and stayed put.)

My cousin S has found a few mother-daughter-style homes in Florida..... he's bringing her to all of them, to let her pick and choose, and be part of the decision-making process as to which house he'll buy. Then he will arrange for her furniture to be moved down there, with whatever is left in the NY house being sold. And, in that big a house, with all of those rooms, there will be a lot left over after my aunt takes what she needs.

My aunt is beside herself with worry..... she wanted to live out the rest of her life in "the house that Papa built." I wish that could have been the ending to her story. Now I'm just hoping that whatever happens in Florida, her story will have a happy ending.