About two years ago Harold and Shirley Poland came to me saying they wanted to sell their house in Plano and move to Denver. The thinking was that Harold wanted to get closer to his family. We discussed what their house was worth, and they went to Denver to see what kind of housing they could afford there. After a few months they determined that they should just stay where they were.
In January of this year I looked up from my visitor-greeting counter at church to see them headed my way. This time they wanted to see about selling their house so they could move to South Texas. Shirley’s family is located there, and Harold was showing signs of Alzheimer’s. They thought it might be best to get close to family so Shirley would have help taking care of Harold in the coming years.
Shirley is very good at looking after her money, so she was concerned about the “down” housing market. She told me, “Kent, I really think it will be a year and a half to two years before we are ready to do this. I want to get the most I can for the house.” The next time I saw them at church Harold came up to me expressing his excitement about moving so they would be closer to family. I told him that Shirley was thinking of waiting another year or two. He was taken by surprise and said, ”We’ll see about that.” Sure enough within a week Shirley called to tell me they were ready to sell the house.
The end result is, we put the house on the market, and received a full price offer from the first people who saw it. They have a daughter living in the same subdivision and wanted to move closer to family. Harold and Shirley went to South Central Texas, and found a place to buy. All of this was done, and the move made within a month and a half of the time they decided to move. And now, I’ll share the amazing, bittersweet, “rest of the story.”
Within a few days of the Poland’s move to get close to Shirley’s family, Harold had a heart attack. He managed to live through it, but there was so much damage done due to lack of oxygen that he has slipped into a coma. I received word this morning that Harold has been moved from the Hospital’s ICU unit, and is now residing in a Hospices care facility. The bitter side is knowing that Harold is already gone for all practical purposes. He is still breathing, he is still alive, but he will soon move once again. The sweet is knowing that Shirley was able to move back home before all of this happened. The sugary sweet part is knowing that God had a hand in all of it.
The providence of God is an amazing thing. It can’t be understood by us. We can’t really explain why and how things happen the way they do. We can only live in the faith of knowing that God is in control. Consider this friends, by the time we received an offer on their house and executed the contract, Harold was in such a state of mind that when asked for his Drivers License, he fumbled and sorted and looked at cards, and then said to me, “Here, just take the one you want.” But, just two weeks earlier, he had learned that Shirley was thinking of waiting for a better market before selling their house, and had been of sound enough mind to say, “We’ll see about that.”
Lord, thanks for taking care of us. Thanks for guiding us in the right direction through Your providence. Help us to always be aware of that guidance, help us to accept the help You offer, help us to allow You to be in control.
Till next time,
Grump