Exhaustion -- Holy Week 2015

The last 4 weeks, we have been moving out of our beloved home, a flat building that we shared with our kids and grandkids, and into a small, ok, we can call it cozy, apartment. This is not a move we wanted: it is the result of a foreclosure. So there is some real sadness in this move, I suspect the next one ( probably a nursing home, we are getting old) won't sting quite as much.

We have expended all the resources we can find. But cash is not a thing we have much of these days: we turned to friends and family.

Our daughter-in-law and granddaughter have been mainstays. I am not sure we could have even begun to get this much done without them. My elder son has been a huge help.

Last Saturday, friends from our congregation, all of whom have their own lives, came and spent their morning helping us move and store a huge amount of stuff. Without them, i do not know if there could even have been a plan. Thursday, faced with a significant crunch in both time and space, we rented a very temporary storage locker and paid two men from the homeless shelter to help us move everything we then had ready. They worked very hard and appeared shocked when I payed them. I feel I owe them more.

I wish the bigots who are so upset that LaGrange is not a gated community, could have watched that movement Thursday. It was my stuff, and they treated it and every minute as though they were precious.

Now we are down to the end. Camping gear we love, some Ham radio stuff, and the food. In some ways, moving to Guatemala might be easier -- we would not be packing the frig!

Sue-z is simply wrung out, my left hip is not working, I am limping if that is the word. We have done our best and it is still not enough. But, we are done. Sometimes, we are learning, your stuff is simply too much, and it simply cannot follow you. We have been discussing dumpsters.

There is at some point, a minimum level every person, every person(!) should have. Enough space for cooking, sleeping, thinking, and storing enough clothing to get by. A space for a loved pet or a loved one. Enough income to pay for shelter, food, and drugs. I find myself on the edge. We have that minimum at a suburban level. If we can limp the car (a necessity in suburban Chicago) another year, we may survive.

Exhaustion, it is our reality. I feel as though I could sleep a week. I won't. Easter is upon us, Holy Week with its demand for devotion is here, and it is time to pray. And yet, it is the help, the smiles, the friendship and love that we recall, and will cherish. We must thank so many.

I should note that the last two days before the court order was effective, Steve worked really hard to help us close out our move. Thanks son!

Oremus! There will be time. My Bro-in-law, ever a help will be here soon. Oremus! Consider what He went through. Our problems are minor. Oremus!"





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"Oremus" literally, "Let us pray!"