Iniciaste sesión como:
filler@godaddy.com
Before
In December 2023 my husband and I sold our restaurant business. We had been working for 7 years straight with only 8 days off a year, and finally, finally all that hard work had paid off and we could retire.
We packed our bags and headed to Ecuador, a country we had been researching for 2 years, knowing that this was to be the place where we would start our retirement adventure.
What fun we had! For three months we walked the city, hiked the mountains and stuffed ourselves with all the culinary delights of our new life. It was pure heaven.
During
Then unexpectedly my husband had back pain. To be fair, this was nothing new. he had experienced this before. The pain migrated to his stomach. Concerning, but still, we were not overly nervous.
Suddenly he couldn't swallow...... not tiny bites, or even sips of water.
And so began the tests, the endoscopy, blood work, a CT scan, the works. And the results came back: pancreatic cancer stage 4, 4-6 weeks left to live.
Our world shattered.
3 and a 1/2 weeks later he was gone.
After
A week after he passed, pulled out of my grief, my neighbour, a massage therapist, dragged me over for a session. "You need a little love." She said.
And so I went. I put my face in the hole and for a solid 90 minutes I cried and sobbed and dripped snot onto the floor as she massaged my pain away and made me feel human again.
But it was what she said at the end of my session that really hit home. She said, "Alison don't you see. Your husband's death was a wake up call. A lesson. There is no time to waste. You have a home in a beautiful new country. You are retired. You have all the time in the world to do what you love to do,. To paint. Don't you see, you get to LIVE. So go do it! "
Today I am back in Ecuador reconnecting with my heart. My days are spent loving and rediscovering who I am, who I was, and who I want to be.
What have I learned?
She was right. I have been given a gift.
I am alive.
And what a magical thing that is to be!