The landlord lady

Model at work!

Our daughter, Caroline, flew away from the nest last year and bought herself a 2 bedroom condo in June 2013. What an accomplishment these days at such a young age (25)! We are so proud of her!

Until then she had lived with us, no one was in a hurry for her and the cat to leave as we were approaching retirement anyway. I read somewhere that when you want your grown up kids to leave the house, you just start walking around the house naked and it usually does the trick! Now ladies, no pictures, this is not that kind of blog! For us there was no rush; we all gained from this arrangement, Caroline got a roof over her head and food on the table and we got an extra body to do chores! : ).

When we retired in September 2012 we just took off for Florida for the winter, knowing that Caroline would take good care of the house. See, another benefit from having her living with us!

Last summer we sold our house at about the same time she bought her condo. We gave her some of our stuff, stored a lot more in her shed and in her condo for the summer for our upcoming move to Florida. The main thing we gave her was our washer and dryer. Now you might wonder why this is the prized possession? Well, being homeless : ), except for our model park in Val-des-Bois and our condo in Florida, we had our sight on using her guest bedroom once in a while when we came to town and do laundry and of course visit our beloved cat and her too (in case she reads this... not in that order) :).

Look it's mine!

Before returning to Florida in the fall of 2013 we got the bad news that Christiane had breast cancer and we could not leave for Florida. Since there is no running water in the winter in Val des Bois, Caroline welcomed us in her condo for the winter. She even offered us her master bedroom which we declined, her guest bedroom is plenty enough. Boy! Are we glad we were not too mean to her when she was growing up!

While navigating our way through the cancer route, we learned that Christiane’s treatments we’ll add a big detour and a few speed bumps in our life with all the treatments to go through and it will not be until the spring or summer 2015 until we are back in the driver seat of our life. Ok, somebody stop me and put the brakes on these car metaphors! It’s driving me crazy! : )

Well, of course, we did tease her and her sister a lot throughout the years. When I was teasing them to the extreme, Christiane would remind me to be careful as our daughters are the one who will decide which retirement home we’ll end up in one day; when to unplug us and there is always that doom day when diaper becomes a new and fun way of discovering their parents! So true! So I would dial it down… for a while.

So, this winter 2013/2014 and the winter of 2014/2015 Caroline’s home is our home. To her it is quite normal; she doesn’t see it as a sacrifice. Of course we could rent a small studio for the coming year, but Caroline insists that we just crash at her place. She wants to be there for Christiane in her fight against cancer and to take care of me while I take care of her mom. She is a beautiful an extraordinary young woman with a heart of gold! She is generous to a fault, charming as hell and so funny! And single… Again, potential boyfriends need only to apply with dad.

It’s weighing on us sometimes to know that Caroline is stuck with us when she could be living her life, having her condo to herself, listening to her noise (she calls THAT music ha ha ha), having all her space. Her guest bedroom was supposed to be a video game room and art studio, now it’s our bedroom. We also use so much space throughout her condo, her pharmacy, walk-in closet, etc. even in her master bedroom since we bought some ergonomic chairs for us to use in her living room and moved her loveseat to her master bedroom!

Caroline keeps telling us how grateful she is for what we do for her! She arrives from work and supper is almost always ready, we do household chores (yah I see the irony here), errands, etc. which to us is just normal but she sees it as a bonus. She never makes us feel like we’re a burden. She is an amazing young woman with a big heart. During the holiday season she had cupcakes for the bus driver! She threw a Christmas party for her friends and had a thoughtful personal gift for everyone. She had even asked them to wear something pink in a show of support for her mom, which they did. If a pet needs babysitting while someone is on vacation, Super Caroline comes to the rescue! What a woman!

Thanks for everything Caroline! We are so proud of you!

Pawpaw