Sunset Beach: Love, Memories & Piece of My Heart
My daughter asked me if I was going to write about this and I said “NO.” It wasn’t something I wanted to share. But I am supposed to be writing about life, and this is real life. My world is pretty darn good, but sometimes it sucks. Right at this moment as I am sitting here trying to sell 13 years of memories –
A Little Backstory
Freddy and I have a 3 bedroom condo by the Intracoastal Waterway in Sunset Beach, NC. We bought it on speculation 13 years ago. Planning it from scratch, made it more special. We came here looking for a place to invest in as a second home… somewhere we could bring our kids every year on vacation and a spot to retire. Sunset Beach was the perfect place. It was two minutes to a family friendly beach. A very tranquil area with a homey feel and a lot of golf courses. If we wanted nightlife, we could go to Myrtle Beach 20-30 minutes away. There are no hotels here because they won’t allow them. No chains, just family-owned – small businesses. Just perfect. It was my sanctuary.
We had a glorious time year after year with family and friends that are like family to us. We would stay for 2 or 3 weeks, sometimes a month, depending on the school schedule. So many years of memories! One of the more memorable ones, was finding out Joey had leukemia. Although that was a bad memory, our goal through 2 years of the hell called cancer, was to get back to Sunset Beach. We wanted to erase that bad memory with more good ones. Our place to heal.
My favorite time of the year. No cell service, no wifi – just us. The beach, the pool and lots of games around the dining room table. My older brother and his wife had the condo upstairs for 10 years. When my sister-in-law passed away from brain cancer, my younger brother, with my niece and nephew would come for the next bunch of years. Again, Sunset Beach became a place to heal.
A very special place for so many years, but here we are …
April 7, 2018 – Sunset Beach
Freddy and I drove 16 hours yesterday (Monday) and arrived at 12:30 am to unpack boxes. We came here because we couldn’t afford to keep our beloved Sunset Beach home. This was going to be our first tag sale. We had one day to get rid of all our belongings before it closed the following Tuesday. You know how it is when you move and you forget how much stuff you have? I kept opening boxes and saying “I forgot we had that!” or “I love that picture, I could hang that at home.” I hadn’t even thought of all the knick knacks we had to get rid of. By 2 am I was exhausted and had to go to bed because the door was opening at 9 am for the vultures.
The Tag Sale Begins
At 8am, the alarm goes off and Freddy goes to get coffee. 5 minutes later he calls me and tells me that people are outside waiting to get in. Ugh – I throw on clothes, open the door and I can’t even talk. I burst into tears at the first woman who walked in. Reality just smacked me in the face. This poor woman, Gwen Waters, doesn’t know what to say, but she pats me on the shoulder and says she is sorry.
She didn’t know why she was sorry, but obviously something was wrong and she extended her sympathy. Gwen tells me what she is looking for, but I don’t know where anything is. I did unpack some things, but as I look around, the realization hits that I had only gotten to 10% of it. I just keep looking and she is very quietly helping me look, but you know what else she was doing? Unpacking boxes and unwrapping all the things in those boxes: dishes, cups, glasses, pictures etc… She was laying it all out for people to see and buy.
While I was being beaten down by others … who shall be known as the vulture family, Gwen was quietly doing all my work. She was being kind. The vultures were offering me .50c or $1 for anything they could get their hands on and when I told them I didn’t have any quarters, they told me they had plenty with them outside. The only time I had a backbone all day was when I told them, I didn’t want their quarters, and nothing was less than a dollar. Gwen just kept offering to give me whatever I wanted.
The mom vulture was offering me $5 for a box of pots and kitchen stuff. She was running ram-shod all over me and anyone who knows me, knows that shit doesn’t fly with me. I should have taken her down, but I was exhausted and an emotional wreck. How does one put a price on something they loved and had such pride in? Something they took a year to put together and furnish? The whole time, Gwen was listening to this bloodsucking opportunist and quietly putting what she wanted in a pile and unwrapping and displaying everything else.
Gwen and her husband bought some things and said they would come back later with a truck for our bedroom set. The vultures took 2 boxes of kitchen stuff, wall hangings, baskets etc for $32. I still had 2 bedrooms, a dining room, a full living room and lots more wall hangings left. It’s only 10am … ugh.
11:00 am
Nobody had come for an hour, so I started putting all my emotions on paper. What are we going to do with all this stuff? My friend Roe is texting me and I am crying. I don’t know what we are going to do, but I know my husband will take care of it, he is a good man.
Then we get a knock on the door – a man looking for old coins and knives. Turns out he knows my friend Roe’s in-laws. He didn’t really buy anything, but his name was John and he was a transplant from Massachusetts. Freddy and I saw pics of his dog and an 80 something year-old woman he helps take care of. He had previously taken care of her husband until he passed from Alzheimer’s and now he helps the wife. Another kind person. These nice people are really helping me get through the day. Just talking and distracting me from the fact that a big part of my life was coming to a close.
12:00 pm
Gwen called again and asks us about a couple other things she is interested in and is going to buy them when she gets back. At this point, I am thinking we better come up with a back up plan, when the door opens. In comes our friends, Kenny and Roe’s Aunts. One of them had just bought a house in a nearby town and had no furniture. Long story short, I cried, we talked, I cried, they bought, I cried some more and eventually they were talking about buying almost everything left.
Next thing you know 5 more of their nearest and dearest family members are there and everything is getting moved out. Me – I am in my closet sobbing because I can’t watch. Freddy comes and finds me, but I am inconsolable. I try to come out, but can’t contain myself and run back in. This shit sucked … really sucked. They were trying to be kind and talk to me, but it was almost all gone now. Another smack of reality!
Eventually, I was able to contain myself and we chatted, hugged and said goodbye. They all said we will get together the next time you guys are in town. That is very sweet that they think we will be down there again, but somehow I don’t think so … not for a long time. Maybe after I hit lotto or make my first million? I know they were just trying to make me feel better – but honestly, nothing was going to work. I was numb. But I do so appreciate their kindness.
3:00 pm
Gwen and her husband come back, pack up and buy everything that is left. The sheets, the towels, the rusty beach chairs … everything. We pretty much gave it to them, but you also can’t put a price on kindness. She tells us if we ever want to come back, we are more than welcome to stay with them because they have 3 bedrooms. Bring the kids, too! More hugs, more tears and we say goodbye, go inside and shut the door. We sit on the only thing left … the big sectional couch with the pullout bed. We don’t care – it’s over and I just want to go home – back to New York.
More Pictures and Final Thoughts
I know to put situations in perspective and I did. These are just “things”. You can’t put a price on my memories, but you also can’t take them away. My baby boy had survived. Getting back to Sunset Beach was our light at the end of the cancer tunnel. Our sanctuary of peace, close friends and family.
And I still carry all the memories and thank God I have the pictures. Sunset Beach was where I could go to get away from it all.
Things happen and life goes on. One door closes – in this case, a door to a three-bedroom condo in Sunset Beach …
another one opens…
Hopefully someday to a tiny house on a couple acres in the mountains with a view and a lake and no cell service. Enough land so my kids can each have their own tiny house and we can make new memories.
The moral of the story again … BE KIND because you don’t know what somebody is going through! I was having a crappy time and these sweet, warm people helped get me through.
Another shout out is to the young parents on twitter who I do not know. You made me laugh for the 28 hours I was in the car over the course of those 3 days. I have to work the social media for this blog so I can eventually make money, and these people were so much fun to read and follow along. Keep making people laugh and tweeting your fun and love of parenthood, because you never know who you are going to touch. You folks really helped me – laughing really helps the pain and y’all cracked me up with your snarky and sarcastic parental funnies.
BTW – I am doing great and celebrating my Grandbaby’s 3rd birthday today. Please include Teri, Debra and Marie in your prayers – a few loves in my life fighting the fight and need all the help they can get!
Much love, happy Sunday and make some new memories! That’s what I am doin’
Sandy
#enlighten #empower #inspire #educate #bekind
I am mad I did not get to say goodbye. So many good memories I will never forget. So much love.
Great Story