An unexpected conversation led my husband and I to a major life change

By Theresa Blume

Featured Columnist

My husband and I went to Ash Wednesday services even though I had babysat all day and he had put in extra hours at work. We were tired, but we pushed ourselves to make the effort to get dressed and go out in the cold winter night.

After the service, we enjoyed a nice meal and fellowship, relaxing in the company of good people. As we were preparing to leave the church, I was casually chatting with a fellow member while putting on our coats. I was telling her it was almost a year ago that we moved to Marshfield looking to make our lives better when suddenly she gasped, struck by an idea.

“The place I work for has been searching for a couple to be caretakers!” were the words that came out of her mouth. I was slightly disappointed because it did not sound that appealing to me at first. We were not looking for another job, but I told myself to be open and hear her out since she was so excited about it. As she started filling in the details, I grew more interested.

Driving home that night, my husband and I talked about it and decided to explore the situation mainly based on her enthusiasm. We were happy where we were living, but money was always an issue, and with me being partially disabled, our options were slim to do much to change our circumstances. We had no better ideas on how to improve our lives, so we told ourselves, “Looking into this could not hurt.”

Long story short, after a lot of paperwork and making some quick decisions, my husband and I moved into our new home at Cedar Rail Court. Seventeen days from that first discussion in church, we have moved into a beautiful apartment, our finances have changed for the better, and our life looks better in every way.

When I think of all the “ifs,” it makes me marvel at how delicate our paths can be. If we had not gone to church that night, if our friend had not followed her intuition to speak up, if I had refused to think about it at all, if I had not talked to her at all that night—these are all legitimate ifs because any one of them could have changed our direction in life.

I think sometimes the best things happen when we do not see them coming. The lesson I learned was to keep my eyes and ears open to new ideas and to consider new possibilities.