ECLIPSE

ECLIPSE

I never believed an eclipse could make such an impact on our everyday lives, I do now…

A few days before the eclipse of April 2024, friends invited themselves to visit with us – as the sorts who love socializing, my husband and I prepared a meal and during the course of enjoying our lunch, these friends, a couple, mentioned that they were looking for a house in our area and were interested in one, but the owner seemed reluctant to sell…these friends had always said they loved our house and garden, so I (not forcefully, just casually) mentioned that at our age (we have a rather large block) we had been considering downsizing and they immediately mentioned their interest in our home – aaaahhhh, I realized, the reason for their visit…

At this stage, it was just an interest (by both parties) and when they left, we had promptly forgotten about it and continued our normal lives; however, within a couple of days, they got back to us, said that they were very keen and wanted to come over again to discuss things in more detail…which we agreed to, but were still in no hurry to make a decision, as we love our home and if it’s time to downsize we will, if not, we still have plenty of time…

Again, we organized another meal (we’ve always been hospitable sorts, we love socializing) to discuss this more seriously and we even had other friends over for a meal and social evening the day before, as we were in no hurry…

So imagine our surprise when the couple who seemed interested in buying our home, very enthusiastically, said…

(She – more than once may I add, I felt as though I was being nagged – she didn’t know ne that well, I have always been an orderly organized sort and orderly organized sorts never panic, never need to rush – I felt as though I was being nagged, but she was my friend, so I ignored the rather hurtful irritation that I felt) “You have to find another home, you have to get rid of anything you don’t want to take, now, have a garage sale even, in fact, you should have started preparing a couple of days ago…” she repeated these words a few times…

I replied, “I suppose so, but we had guests yesterday, but don’t worry, we’ll be ready…”

(He) “We really want your home, if you find another home to buy, do so, I have financial approval, I could even rent our own place until we sell it…”

STUPEDLY, I BELIEVED THEM – within five days, I’d sorted what we wanted to keep and what we didn’t, got rid of a lot of things, and my husband and I not only found another place, it was similar to ours, just not as many bedrooms or yard, so we knew where we were going to put all our furnishings (we had the measurements of the new place) so we wouldn’t have to sell our furnishings and buy new furnishings, we organized the skip for things he didn’t intend taking with us, we organized the furniture removal truck, the conveyancer, the bank, we were ready to start our next and final chapter…but our friends, the buyers of our home, changed their mind…

I have been around a long time (I’m not young) and my instincts had warned me how the ‘over the top,’ enthusiastic sorts change their minds – but not only that, because they were enthusiastically pushing us to clear out and go, they have to then find a reason to blame us, so they don’t appear as though they’ve changed their mind – it’s always the ones you least expect – never believe the enthusiastic ones – the quieter sorts are the real achievers…

And their reason, apparently (they have bad memories whereas I have a very good memory) they didn’t say to get rid of anything we didn’t need, they didn’t say to have a garage sale, they didn’t say I should have been doing so a couple of days earlier, they didn’t say buy and get out, that they have the finances, and could rent their place out until they sell it, apparently, they said settlement is 45 days (we both don’t remember them saying that, in fact, our real estate agent, conveyancer and bank all say 30 at the most, but usually only between two days to two weeks)…

And they also said that they felt as though they were being bullied and hurried?!?!

I remember taking it easy – I remember entertaining other friends the day when our buyers were saying I should have been getting rid of things on that day – I decided to get my ‘act into gear’ because they said to – seriously said to - ordered me to...

I even remember feeling proud at getting everything done, and organized within only five days…I felt as though we’d broken a record; I mean, have you ever heard of anyone buying a place and being prepared to move within five days???

Oh; well, it wasn’t meant to be – there are always positives to every situation, both my husband and I appreciate our place more than we did – living in the same place for several years now, we no longer saw the ‘wow’ factors, the beautiful garden, despite everyone else saying ‘WOW’ whenever they entered our front door for the first time…

And, we have also realized that we are ready for downsizing BUT, we will take our time looking around, like we had initially planned to, instead of rushing, as told to do so by others who proved to be insincere…

The moral of the story, DON’T BELIEVE OVER THE TOP, ENTHUSIASTIC PUSHERS – LISTEN TO THE CALM, QUIET ONES – THE ONES WHO ARE SO CONFIDENT THAT THEY HAVE NO REASON TO PUSH THEMSELVES, OR OTHERS, for that matter…

And this (our organizing) happened between the first week of April 2024 leading up to the (when the buyers changed their mind) on the 8th - the eclipse – our eclipse and now, I’m a believer and hope that we won’t be experiencing another rather heart-rending eclipse for some time now…