In 2001 or so, I was inspired by Karen Blue’s Midlife Mavericks, about single women moving to Mexico for financial and other reasons. I realized that as a forever-single mom who worked part-time for 20 or more years, I wouldn’t be able to amass enough dough for retirement. For the bottom 98%, living in America requires two incomes. Most American retirees trying to live on Social Security (SS) and maybe some bit of savings really can’t make it without subsidized housing or other scrimping means of survival.
Growing up in Texas, I frequently visited Mexico over the years, and always loved it. My mother was actually born in Mexico City and emigrated to the U.S. when she was 5, naturalizing as a U.S. citizen in young adulthood. Her family was Italian-Spanish and lived a few years in Mexico on their way to the U.S., had own businesses in several areas, but ultimately chose to live in the U.S., emigrating to Galveston, Texas in the early 1900′s. My 2 cousins and I grew up speaking Spanish but I deliberately unlearned it around 8 yrs., sensitive to the prejudice all around me – much to my regret now.
I left Austin after finishing college at U.T. and surviving the 1960′s – drugs & sex & rock’n'roll & antiwar protests – relatively intact. I married my high school sweetheart and divorced, no children. I survived Charles Whitman’s shooting students from the U.T. Tower by hiding under some shrubbery, and 2 other episodes of violence, which made me want to seek a softer, gentler way to live. I began a lifelong interest in nature, Buddhism, art, non-consumerist living, liberal politics, feminism, crafts, and joined the back-to-land migration of hippies seeking the simple life in rural parts of America.
I migrated to Maine where I lived on a farm, in a snowmobile camp in the woods, in small towns, small cities, a house on a lake. I became an R.N., a database manager, web designer and online learning developer. I built a house trading carpentry for architectural plans with another woman, and with my future 2nd husband/father of my daughters. After divorce, I raised my daughters who turned out quite well, became part of an extended blended family, and embedded myself in career and work. After two brief marriages and divorces, and not much to write about for relationships in between or after, I learned to be a most-of-the-time happy solo flyer. I spent many years doing African dance, even taught it. I picked up a BFA and loved learning about art, but couldn’t resolve the conflict between creating art and working in a workaholic corporate IT job.
I bought a house on the lake and poured some money into it – decor and gardens. I gave up cats (allergies) and acquired a dog (Krypto, Australian Cattle Dog/Lab mutt) from my wonderful neighbors. Then the economy went to hell, I got laid off, became a persistently unemployed elder, had to take early SS retirement at 62, and had to sell my house on the lake. Did a major downsizing and sold/gave away 2/3 of my “it’s only stuff” stuff. I moved back into town into a small apartment by the sea with my dog, and joined other dog owners for runs on the lovely seaside trails and runs. I managed to keep close to wonderful friends who alas, I will leave behind when I leave.
But leave I will. The winter of 2011 was brutal for me, not so much for too much snow as for too much ice. Eight inches thick on the streets and sidewalks, it was really difficult to walk, I fell too many times, and so basically, after 41 years in Maine, I reached my limit with Winter.