Tuesday, February 11, 2020

With Loss Comes A Time To Leave Things Behind-Yet Remain Tucked Within My Heart

Are there things that you may feel the need to put behind in your loss? If there are, please know, they can still remain with you tucked deep within your heart.
In April of 1983, while on our honeymoon in Orlando, Florida, Paul and I attended a presentation that explained how we could have "ownership" once a year for one week in a full-sized condo. The condo included two bedrooms, a kitchen with a dishwasher, oven, stove, microwave, washer, and dryer-basically all the comforts of home in the heart of Orlando.
We went on a tour of Vistana Resort. The grounds were full of palm trees, lush flowers in hues of pink, yellow, purple, and several restaurants. During the presentation, they specifically told us that they would always provide us with soap that lathers; this still has left an impression on me. The other point in the presentation was that we would have the option to make an exchange with our week to different locations besides Florida. The final point in the presentation was that we could always sell the Timeshare whenever we felt it was no longer a good fit for us. We were given time to think it through, and we both decided that we would like to have a place to vacation once a year. With much excitement and happiness, we became the proud owners of a Timeshare.
As time went on, our family grew, we built a house, life was busy for us. We were able to go back to Vistana Resort a handful of times. Some years we exchanged our week for resorts in Minnesota. Other years, family and friends were able to use our Timeshare. We began to realize that this was something we were not able to utilize as much as we thought we would. We remembered in the presentation from 1983 that we could sell our Timeshare, only to find out that despite paying for the Timeshare outright, paying yearly maintenance fees and upgrades to the resort, our Timeshare was worthless. When we found this out, we were very disappointed. There was not much we could do about it. We decided that we would try to make use of the Timeshare whenever we could.
When Paul passed away in February 2017, it was heavy on my heart as to what to do with this Timeshare. Yes, I could continue to use the Timeshare with my daughters. We did indeed use the Timeshare in 2019 and 2020; we had an enjoyable time, and we were able to create some new memories. In a previous post, I have talked about the importance of creating new memories after a loss, as I did in this post.http://ajoyfulheartjourney.blogspot.com/2019/11/comfort-in-grief-blog-series-3.html
Yet, I felt in my heart that it was time to put this Timeshare behind me. Maybe because I thought Paul and I would have been able to come back more often in retirement. The reality is, and as hard as it is for me to admit, this will not happen.
The question, of course, was, how would I go about putting this Timeshare behind me when there is no resale value? Thankfully, there has been a new program put into place, and Vistana Resort will take back the Timeshare with no money exchanged.  
By putting this Timeshare behind me, by no means, will I ever forget the happiness and excitement we shared when we made the decision to purchase a Timeshare. This was the start of our life together, a massive leap of faith and the very first investment we made as husband and wife. This is a memory that will remain tucked deep within my heart. 
Are there things that you may feel the need to put behind in your loss? Share your thoughts in the comments below. We are all in this together.

Thank you for visiting my small, humble blog.

With love,
Patty














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