Other titles I considered for this post: 'Times Flies' and 'WWJDD' (What Would JD Do?).
It is July 16th, 2021. We are into the second half of July and into the second half of 2021. I am always struck by the contradicting feelings about time - on one hand, the weeks and months and years seem to pass at an ever-quickening pace, and yet, events that happened not that long ago appear to be a distant memory. Our last trip to Germany in April 2017 seems like it was yesterday or was it half a lifetime ago? Which is it? For two of Klara’s cousins, Sophia and Karla, who were born since then, it is more than a lifetime ago.
Sometime in the fall or early winter of 2016 I had a conversation with my mother. She was planning a return trip to New Zealand, having last visited in 1999. She was hoping to find a travel companion or two amongst her group of enthusiastic travel friends, but no one seemed to bite. I said to her: ‘I’ll come, and we can take Klara with us!’ Decision made! We were aiming to travel in the spring of 2018, fall in the southern hemisphere. I remember sharing the plans with a friend not long after the conversation with my mom and at that point, 2018 seemed like such a long way away. And yet, here we are in 2021, the trip is more than three years past. Where did the time go?
So, what are we going to do with the time left?! Hopefully, we have a few decades yet, but still limited time after all. Pack two suitcases and go on an adventure?! Why that sounds like a fantastic idea! Where to? I know, I know - Ireland, of course! The land of my inescapable daydreams. Convenient too because they speak English there making it easier to adjust. Wait! What? Matt prefers to move to Germany because he has always dreamt of living in a foreign country and learning a new language, and he likes my family?! Klara is excited about Germany too because of her many cousins there. My mother has a big house renovation project coming up, a perfect opportunity for Matt to get to work while learning the language and settling in. Moving back to Germany … not something I ever saw myself doing, but … oh, why not?! It makes sense, let’s do it!
Doubts abound: I have never lived in Germany as an adult, have never had to find a job in Germany. None of my education since the age of 16 took place in Germany, it’ll be like being a native in a strange land. How will we support ourselves? We are moving with two dogs?! How will that work? Where will we live? But the biggest hesitation of all was probably brought on by the feelings of having to let go of the last bit of John’s legacy in Vermont. It has been a 10-year journey working through all of his belongings and passing them on, taking care and renovating the houses he had purchased, giving Klara a chance to get to know, live with, and be surrounded by his family and friends in Vermont and the rest of the North-Eastern States. While I had always dreamed of new adventures we were never ready and somehow the underlying assumption had always been that we’d be in Vermont for a long time. But recent events have ‘conspired’ in such a way that we realized, we are finally ready - mentally, emotionally, physically! Oh, wow, reality hit home, we could really do this!
As the doubts continued to swirl around my head, the acronym that John’s friends liked to use popped into my head - WWJDD (What Would JD Do?) And, the answer to me was obvious! John and I were on a trip to Germany and China in 2011 about four months before Klara was born, when he was already having health issues that we were trying to resolve. We were at my mother’s little holiday home in Langholz by the Baltic Sea and John was having problems and ultimately stayed in a German hospital for a few nights. It was around that time that he said to me: ‘If I die, you should sell the houses and move back to Germany. I think you’d be happier here.’ My reaction was: ‘Firstly, of course, you are not going to die, and secondly, I am not going anywhere!’ Yet, here we are.
As for John’s legacy, I think his friends and family will always carry it with them in their own unique way. Everyone has cherished memories, that are not limited to place or time. And Klara has a love for the place of her birth, Vermont, clearly instilled in her. The other day, during what was a completely whimsical conversation about moving to NYC instead of Germany, she said, I paraphrase, ‘I don’t like big cities. Vermont is beautiful.’ And she insisted that we move to Germany to stay with her German cousins instead. So Germany it is!
I hope and believe that I did justice to John’s legacy in Vermont. Now it is time for us to embark on a new adventure and in a way honor another part of John’s legacy. Both he and I, have had the great fortune to live in foreign countries while growing up and to learn a second language, so giving Klara the chance to do the same by leaving Vermont and moving to Germany is not such a big departure from what John would have done, no departure at all, in fact, I would say.
So, we have a plan. Matt is working to finish the last bits that need to get done on the ‘little house’, while I pack the two suitcases (spoiler alert - it’ll be more than two suitcases …), and while Klara completes 5th grade with her friends in Ludlow. And then, about a year from now, give or take, we hope to be off, fingers crossed, all going well. It seems like a long way away, but time will fly! We are excited and ready, so let’s get on the road and live those dreams.
PS.: If I have anything to do with it and circumstances permit, we will still move to Ireland someday, but Germany is a fantastic stop along the way!