Word received.

My Episcopal priest husband's formal announcement of his surprisingly-soon (Jan 1) retirement is now publicly known in the parish (after an unavoidable one week delay). This affects me in so many ways only another clergy spouse of my vintage can understand.... And there are none near me.... my only almost-peer is dealing with her own equally serious stuff two states away... and there are now only a few days open to me to support hubby and parish full of dearly loved elders and a few potentially negatively-reactive folks. I'm at least able now to bring my unique skillset to this brief and intense moment. Sunday morning will be especially chaotic but an avalanche of community blessings and cursings can fall on us at any place or time-- some fell on him this AM. And we're clearly too old to deal with this all "easily".

His first plan was 2009 early retirement after 25 years' exhausting ministry. The market wiped that plan out. I started later, 25 years ago, and for me it's not early. I'm 65 and facing a family dementia history. No one in the parish knows that yet. We arrived here as newlyweds. We'd like some honeymoon time. Now.

~S~