A Charming Vacation

Growing up, I lived in a "Leave It to Beaver" household.  My mom was a stay-at-home mom and my dad was the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a drug company.  Although Daddy traveled extensively in his job, vacations were usually just staying home and going to the pool or a trip to Chattanooga to "See Rock City".  When I started working in the travel industry, the whole world opened up to me.

We opened Just Cruisin' Plus in 1988, the same year my dad retired at 63.  He and Mom were healthy, vibrant sixty-somethings.  They had bought a camper and had traveled all over the U.S., but had not traveled outside the country until that year.  Within two months of Daddy's retirement, they were off to see the world.  Their first trip was a cruise to Scandinavia and Russia.  Their journeys to six of the seven continents had begun.

Their travels took them to Hawaii, Alaska, the Holy Land, the Mediterranean, the Far East (Japan, China and Korea), the British Isles, Canada and New England, Australia and New Zealand.  They took a 16-night river cruise through Europe from Budapest to Amsterdam, the one city my mom wanted to visit so she could see the Anne Frank House.  They experienced more in twenty years than most will experience in a lifetime.

Mom and Dad were never big souvenir shoppers, but Mom collected thimbles and charms in the many places their travels took them.  Their house was broken into a number of years ago, and one of the things that was taken was her charm bracelet with all of her memories.  About five years ago, our family decided to replace this bracelet for her for Christmas.

A year ago today, we began a journey with Mom that would end on October 13 when she finally took her final journey.  My dad is now living in assited living and has Alzheimer's.  He still knows all of us and can call us by name.  I talk with him every day.  He can't remember things that occurred 20 minutes ago, but he can tell us about all of the many trips he and Mom took to places most of us long to visit.

When we were cleaning out the house they shared for 50 years, I came across Mom's charm bracelet.   There's the Canadian maple leaf, a cruise ship, a hula dancer from Hawaii, a pyramid and sphinx from Egypt, Scottish bagpipes, a windmill from Holland, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, a gondola from Venice, the Capitol in Washington, the Colosseum in Rome, the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben in London, a Chinese lantern, a kangaroo from Australia, a shamrock from Ireland, and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, where Mom and Dad had their first home when Daddy returned from Guadalcanal after World War II.

Of all the things at their house, this bracelet means more to me than anything else I found.  I helped them see the world, but more importantly, they were able to enjoy retirement as it is meant to be.