THE END IS COMING

It is hard to believe that such hot news is not being discussed in the halls, lounges and bathroom. But everyone is virtually silent. Word is getting around that the manager and her husband, the maintenance man, have resigned and are leaving July 6. It is obvious that not everyone knows they’re leaving, but the talkers all know. But it is quiet talk softly on the sides. There is great disappointment. Things have never worked so well. That’s a good thing.

I spent a great deal of time with them this morning. We are just good friends. A few people have chipped in to given them a framed print of one of my drawings — specifically his favorite one. (See new photo on the side). We talked about their move to central Florida. His wife is always cold here. Admittedly it is consistently cooler here than many parts of the USA. We get very little snow in the winter, but because we live in a rain forest, it takes a long time till it warms up and stops dripping. We are still waiting for summer. Isn’t not that we haven’t had some nice days. We have, and we loved both of them. We are unsure if it has gone back to early spring or if fall is coming. Tree leaves are not falling so I guess it is still spring.

We talked about independent senior centers and I learned we are not dramatically different. The bickering here is not very different than the college dorm. It happens in any close living situation. There are conflicts, most of which are easily solved. There are the stubborn ones who refuse to change. In college they don’t return the next semester or get kicked out of school. Here, they leave of their own freewill or they get evicted. I have been amazed how similar the living situation is. The biggest different is we are more set in our ways that college students and we don’t stay up so late. On the other hand, we do beat them up in the morning.

Our BBQ on the 4th of July will give our residents the opportunity to say goodbye. The management has made no move to tell us of the departure or even set a date and time when they will arrive with the big announcement. They feel like we all know and do not need an explanation. We don’t all know, but will find out soon enough. We do want an explanation, but it will likely bring very little satisfaction.

It’s like everyone has a little secret and they talk in quiet tones hesitantly hoping not to pass on information the other still may not know. It’s hoot (old people say hoot). The one surprise in conversation is the number of people talking about flooding the administrative office with work orders, complaints, questions and who knows what else. They want to overwhelm them. It’s probably more talk than do, but there is the handful that will tell them in no uncertain terms what they think of our loss. So will those who are happy. As for me, I plan to take notes, and repeat the drama with a bit of flourish for my own amusement and yours.