OUR SOUTHERN EXIT: Leaving Louisiana – Pt. 3
April 2022: Our journey out of southeast Louisiana after living there as a transplant for 15 years.
Written by Mollie Johnson 11/08/2023
Closing Day Means I'm Homeless for a Week.
At this point, our son Drake was still living in Washington while trying to close on his new house in Louisiana. He was supposed to close before us, but there was such a comedy of errors we couldn't depend on anything to be perfectly timed. I think there were a dozen signers to wrangle together for the seller of the estate.
My husband signed a power of attorney because he would not be with me in person to sell the house. I woke up the morning of closing, gathered up the last remaining items and left our home for the last time. I thought it would be harder to leave the house than it was. It was bittersweet, but I was excited about the days ahead. God is so good and I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to own this home and raise my family in it for so many years.
As soon as the new buyers closed on our former house, I asked our realtor if I could go measure Drake's house (that he would close on the following week.) The sellers were very agreeable and I measured our son's future home for the next couple of hours. I remember texting my sister that maybe I wasn't up to the task of fixing up his house . . that maybe it was just too much for me.
I remember suddenly feeling very overwhelmed and alone. My husband had moved and started his new job, I was essentially homeless and Drake wouldn't move down until mid-summer. I had clients to work with, a business to shut down and a cat to "care for." The road ahead was suddenly daunting. My son and I have talked about me decorating his first home since he was a kid. And here I was, staring the reality of it all in the face. Being alone with one foot out of the state is not how I imagined it. Of course, my sister encouraged me and I forged head.
A cheap hotel in Prairieville was my home for the next week. This would mark the beginning of lots of take out and fast food for a while.
I stopped at the Jambalaya Shoppe near closing time and they gave me way too much jambalaya for one person -- my tiny hotel fridge was not large enough to even hold the leftovers. This was the first of many "lasts" like, Nick's Pizza, Burgersmith, Chick-fil-A, Raising Cane's and lemonade pie from Mike Anderson's. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't leave officially until October 2022. Back to Spring of 2022...
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