Being far away

It's hard to be far away from ones family.  I've had to make a decision to be where my husband wants to be and he wants to be in France where we will live a much more free life with no burglar bars on the windows and doors and no worries at night.  We chose a tiny hamlet of 5 houses - only one other permanently occupied by an English fellow - and made an offer.   Until the offer goes through we are holding back on the excitement/nervousness of moving - after all it might NOT go through.  I'm ambivalent about whether it goes through or not but I think OAP would be devastated.

For me the worst thing is leaving my family behind.  I'd always hoped they would travel abroad and settle in other countries, then I could go and visit and live elsewhere myself.  OAP is now 74 and feeling that he can't protect me any more (my cave man!) and his quality of life is affected by the tension.  When we leave our house to go to town or gym or whatever we set the alarm, lock up as if its the Bastille and worry the whole time that we will get home (again) to a ransacked house.  I must say that leaving our car in a car park in SA we wonder if it will be there when we come back!  I've had two cars stolen - once from under my nose - and it's a horrible experience, but not half as horrid as being hi-jacked.   OAP is SO nervous about that that he makes my life miserable, so I finally relented and decided to try the living abroad.

One thing we have discovered is that we are not eligible for any sort of medical cover and our SA medical aid will not cover us for more than 4 months away so we will be back in SA every 3 months - which, actually, is probably about as often as I see the kids anyway!!  This will ensure QUALITY time is spent together.  We are not selling our SA house as we both dearly love it and will come back every European winter to spend SA summer there for 4 months.  SO actually it probably wont be any different to our life now except we will, hopefully, have a cute house and small garden in the French countryside and a much cheaper way of life than at present!   Anyone fancying a holiday in France in the Limousin countryside is very welcome - there's a small river nearby, a gorgeous lake 5 kms away and lots and lots of smashing walks.