What has been going on with Toni?

Me pulling my hair out!!!!!

What is going on? I haven’t posted in over a month! No, I did not drop off the face of the earth nor did I run out of topics to inform and amuse you! I simply ran out of time to write. Here’s why.

Three weeks ago, my son, my daughter-in-law and I were sitting around at the beach house talking about our growing family, My twin grandchildren will be graduating from college next year and always bring friends when they come down. My oldest grandson has three children now (not to even mention seven dogs among us).  This, of course, means I I am running out of room to sleep everyone when they are all here. I asked my son if he could add a “sleeping floor” to the top story. He said emphatically, “no”, we had maxed out the space in this house.

Part of the clan with six of the dogs

This led to us riding around looking at larger houses. Long story short, we stumbled onto a “disadvantaged” (my realtor’s term) property. It is a larger house with more bedrooms and an adorable guest house. After checking it out with my realtor, we learned there were some issues with the house, but nothing we felt we couldn’t overcome (here we go again, we just barely finished remodeling our present house). We made an offer and are working our way through the “due diligence” period. This, of course, necessitated me selling my present beach house. We have been whipping it into shape and, it went on the market this past Tuesday! Do you have any idea how much time this buying and selling has entailed? Of course you do, I’m sure you have encountered this very scenario at some point in your life. Maybe not at my age though!

The back story:

My son and his wife bought a lovely five acre wooded, lakeside lot two years ago, and my son was going to build their dream house. He had cleared the space, put in the well and septic and was ready to start on the house when my daughter-in-law was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. This is an extremely aggressive type of cancer and had spread to some lymph nodes, and she has two spots in her lungs. Considering her prognosis, they immediately started trying to get her into a cancer program at a university hospital. By the grace of God, she was accepted at Duke. They upped, left everything, and moved to Durham, NC between Christmas and NewYear’s last year. They were fortunate to find a furnished house to rent temporarily.

My son and his wife’s beautiful lot

My daughter-in-law, Nancy, is the most loving, caring and loyal person you could ever know. She has been the primary caregiver for her mother, who has Parkinson’s, for the last seven years. She has been a dedicated police officer for the last twenty years. She was also a hostage negotiator for fifteen years. She has received numerous commendations through her career, including the Meritorious Service Award in 2016 and the Metal of Valor in 2024.  Her Crisis Intervention skills were used to talk a young woman, with a loaded pistol to her head, out of suicide. She is a strong Christian woman, a wonderful wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend. I love just being around her. She is a “zany” Autumn (you know I have to tell you her “Season”)! She is always up for anything. Even through this challenging time, she has always remained positive.

Nancy and my son, Buck	Nancy in action

Like me, Nancy loves the beach. It is her “happy place”. She has always been a strong swimmer and has kept that up to strengthen her upper body. First as a police officer, in order to carry around the heavy duty belt officers have to wear, and, also, to be in shape to take down a perpetrator, if need be. Now, she swims to stay strong enough to fight cancer. I am in awe of this woman. She went into the 49 degree ocean back in April, as lowering your body temperature rapidly helps to fight cancer cells.

Nancy coming out of 49 degree ocean!

Nancy has had to apply for medical retirement as it is very unlikely she will ever be able to carry out the duties of a police officer again. She underwent a mastectomy May 7th, and praise God, they were able to get 15 clear lymph nodes and the margins of the breast they removed were clear, so as of now, there is no more evidence of breast cancer. She still has to undergo lung surgery in the next few weeks, but the doctors feel by removing part of one lobe, they can get all the cancer in the lung.

Nancy is over the moon excited about the new beach house as they will be living there for the foreseeable future and commuting to Duke. They are putting their beautiful lot up for sale as it no longer makes sense to live in Virginia. It is their hope to take some of the proceeds and put in a pool for Nancy at the new beach house. I cannot tell you how good it makes me feel to see her this excited and happy. She has not had much to be happy about for many months now,

New house and guest house. It is the brown one in the forefront with guesthouse on left

So, with all this going on, you can see why I have been crazy busy! Like all of you. who are mothers, I would do anything in my power for my children. They are still our children, no matter what age they are. I have been so blessed that my children and their spouses have always been so dedicated to me, and I love having an opportunity to give something back to them. We never know where life will lead us or how our lives can change in one moment in time, but there are always silver linings and God is always good!

I will keep you posted on the progress of this new venture. Many of you are praying for Nancy, and we are grateful. Please continue as this will be a long journey. I will be posting my Spring/Summer wardrobe blog in the next few weeks. Thanks for staying “tuned in”, and I hope your life has been less hectic than mine.

Note: My beach house sold the same day it went on the market. What a blessing!