We both want to send our best wishes for this holiday season and for the year ahead. It has been an interesting year for both of us and here are a few thoughts we wish to remember for ourselves and share with you.
From Ricardo:
This year I have learned to embrace imperfection in all things big or small and to appreciate the littlest of things. Also to find inspiration in everyday life and to trust in a higher power living life one glorious day at a time, now more than ever before. I’m very thankful to have so many wonderful people who I call family in my life who have my back as I have theirs. I have come to realize that this kind of trust builds the best of connections and allows us all to breathe naturally and to be of good cheer.
As 2024 draws to a close, I reflect on a year of profound transformations for us, realizing that we are aging and looking at taking responsibility for our future needs. We hope to be at Twin Lakes in Burlington, NC next year, which is a CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community) that we have come to like. We are waiting for a two bedroom villa which we saw last year. We do love our current home in Carrboro however the time to move is near.
It was a year of travel, to Mexico twice and then to France. We have pushed our boundaries in Paris due to an accident that occurred upon entering the country. From this experience we have discovered a different kind of strength within ourselves. Looking back now it is slowly becoming more of a distant memory.
It was a year of experiences forcing us to adapt and find new paths forward. Most importantly, it was a year of wisdom, teaching us the value of resilience, gratitude, and the power of pursuing life with gusto. We now have a deeper sense of ourselves and how we fit in to the greater world around us.
From Susan
There has been much to be grateful for in 2024. It's been a year since I have written and as usual, our time is full of adventure. We started our year continuing our time in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. There we have a great community of friends and catching up with them all is part of the fun of being there. Also we continue to support our not-for-profit organization Libros para Todos which has been successfully going on for 11 years. I would never have imagined what it would become and how we help so many children, mostly from rural communities to enjoy reading and other cultural experiences.
For me, the highlights of this year were the visits of all my siblings and their partners. I am blessed to have a close relationship with all of them. First came Richard and Mei Mei to visit in San Miguel. We enjoyed the usual - walking around the beautiful town, eating in many restaurants, street vendors and being home. (We were house sitting once again at the same beautiful home that we have for many years). We returned to house sit another time in mid April to June 2. Mexico has been high on our list for living for so many years that it feels like home.
March brought my other brother Alan and Marilyn to North Carolina on their yearly trip north from Florida to upstate New York. Richard always has a long list of handyman jobs for Alan to work on. It is great to have someone who loves repairing and fixing things, With them as well the other sibs, there is always walking, talking and eating good food.
September brought Nancy back to NC (more on that in a moment) and Richard and Mei Mei visited again this month. Richard (brother) is a great cook and loves to make food for others. The rest of us love to eat his food. With them, we also played Scrabble every night.
We saw nearly the whole extended family of nieces, nephews and their children for another family reunion at Cape Cod. This has been a tradition for a very long time. How lucky I am to have the chance to be with my family with quality time together. I love you all very much.
Now for the bad. Most of you know that at the end of September I fell upon arrival in Paris and broke my hip (femur). It required surgery and I have 2 pins and a screw holding my femur bone together at the top. I spent 10 days in the hospital in Paris (with Richard staying at an AirBnB one hour away by Uber every day.) This was a big challenge for both of us. Thanks to good travel insurance we were flown back to NC with a nurse escort who took care of all the transportation details and me. After 2 days in the local hospital (UNC Hospital) I was sent home to start my rehabilitation with PT and OT. Unfortunately 3 days later I was rushed back to UNC Hospital with sepsis (from a UTI) and spent 5 days in ICU. I was then transferred to UNC - Hillsborough for a 10 day intense rehab program. So that was the first month. I made good progress and went home and have been recuperating ever since, I am now walking with a cane and here and there with no aid. I was not myself for the first month or so but now feel much better. Nancy came when we returned from Paris to help Richard and to help figure out what we should do once I came home. I am so thankful to her..The good that came from the bad is the fact that I have such a great community of friends and family in many parts of the world that were rooting for me all the time. I felt all the love and I know it contributed to my healing.
Also good was the hospital in France as far as the surgery and the nursing care and I have nothing negative to say about all the experiences at the UNC Hospital - both Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. Lastly my thanks go to my PT and OT people.
And the best I save for last - the love and care ALL the time from my darling husband Ricardo. Neither of us have experienced caregiving for an extended period of time but Ricardo showed that he was the best.
So, as the year comes to the end, I thank you all who are reading this post for your love and support and have so much gratitude as we continue on this adventure of life. May 2025 bring peace and tolerance in the world.
