It seems so long ago when we had several Narrowboat holidays and decided, this is what we want to do. We want to buy our own Narrowboat and live on the canals. That was about 8 to 10 years ago, although there was a time when we thought about buying an old coach/bus doing it in to a motorhome and go travelling. We agreed in the end that a narrowboat would be best, a motorhome would be a lot of driving for Colin as I don't drive. Fast forward to May this year when Colin relieved a letter saying he could get his state pension on July 16th 2021 when he was 66. The job we were doing working for Shared Lives was changing. A new manager, changing all the policies, then changing the name which also meant new contracts. They were wanting us to do so much more, what was the Coordinators job with all these changes? No answer to that question. The new contract was changing, we the Carers were going to do the risk assessments and Care p,and from now on. So we thought "Sod it, let's do it, let's give notice retire and live on a narrowboat. Our dream was coming true😊. We checked our house, we new a few things needed doing to sale our house. We had already had new windows put in beginning of February. Just a bit of touching up the paint on walls and the skirting boards. Tidy up the garden. It didn't take long, our house went on the market on the Wednesday and was sold by the Friday. We were a bit unsure as they were Bulgarian and Cash buyers. What a lovely couple they were.
We then gave our 28 days notice on August 10th, which meant they had 28 days to find somewhere for our 2 Adults with Learning difficulties somewhere to live. I was worried about my lady, she doesn't like change. She didn't like going on respite and would say "I'm not going Wendy"and shake her head bless her. We explained that we were retiring, not going to be working anymore. She still insisted on living with us, I kept explaining every day to her that she couldn't come with me. Those 28 days went by really quickly, they had found somewhere for the both to go. The Social worker that worked with us a d our 2 people kept saying "Don't worry Wendy, I will make sure they go to someone nice, let me do the worrying. You go and enjoy your retirement on your narrowboat. Its easy for them, to them they are just a number, they are human beings with feelings. Our man was fine, all he was worried about was our dogs and not be able to see them. He went to one carer, stayed there about 10 days, then went to stay with another couple, where he still is now and very happy.
I've seen our lady a couple of times, she was tearful, I've phoned a couple of times and had a chat with her, she sounds much happier but still asks "Can I come with you" I always say to her "You are happy now and you know you can't come with me" I always say I miss you and I do think of you, we've told her we will be coming back in December to collect our things that is in storage and we will come and say "Hello" she likes the postcards that we send her.
Our man loves the photos of our dogs and the videos of the dogs, so I try to send him 1 or 2 a week. It keeps him happy.
That's it for today. Going to sit and read for a bit. Colin is playing one of his games.
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