My why is for my family. I thought from the beginning that I knew what my WHY was. I started this about 4 years ago, and when I started, I thought that I would be doing this to help with my husband’s retirement. That was my first why.
Why Number 2?
Since then, my why has changed. Retirement has been fine. We are living comfortably on retirement. I see my sister, who is four years younger than me, struggling, and I, being the oldest sister of six kids and always being the one to take care of the younger brothers and sisters. I still feel compelled to help her out. So my new why has become to help my sister. As a retired accountant who lost her husband too soon to cancer and who is raising her son’s children because he is a deadbeat dad. I feel she needs a hand up. She is living on Social Security and her husband’s pension.
With four kids, 2 teenage boys and 2 girls to feed. Teenage boys eat a lot, and the oldest girl still hoards food for her and her little sister because when they were with the mom, there were times they had no food. My sister has found that she needs to go back to work. So since she has been retired and now she is working again to provide for her 4 grandchildren. I would love to help her.
My Why number 3 is for my family!
After this past weekend, I spent the weekend with my family to celebrate my grandson’s girlfriend’s 21st birthday. I love my family, as I am sure you all do, and we have so much fun when we are all together. My older daughter lives in New Jersey, and the rest of the family lives here in Ohio.
So my new why is my family. I want to be able to spend more time with my family. I aim to cover the expenses for our out-of-town trips, enabling us to gather more frequently than once every year or two. Our next family trip is going to be at the beach somewhere next May. I hope to be able to pay for the accommodations so that everyone will be able to fly down and have money to spend. That is my why!!
Family Comes First!
I recently came across this article from 2015 written by Jeff Chandler regarding Family Comes First. I am providing the link here. Mr. Chandler recalls how he put his job before his wife; he has no children. And how it effected his marriage. Everyone should read this article. It is so easy to get caught up in your work and put aside your life. I recently lost my son-in-law, very unexpectedly. He was much like Mr. Chandler; he did have children, a beautiful wife, and grandchildren.
He worked seven days a week. Not because he had to; he just liked his job and the people he worked with. He missed out a lot on his family life. Although he did make time for his family, he could have been more present. He had a fatal heart attack at 57 years old. Now we are all learning to navigate life without him. So my why is changing again. Now I am focusing on helping my daughter and my grandchildren learn to live without her husband and their father.
My daughter and her children are all very strong, loving individuals and will survive and will develop a why of their own. Until then, my why will be to be there for them.