Listen to Your Guardian Angels
By Judy Ann Ritter
It was Christmas, and I was doing my shopping. As I drove by the health club to which I belonged, I had this urgent feeling that I must buy my husband, Mark, a membership in that health club for Christmas, even though he said that he didn't want one. The feeling became stronger and stronger as the shopping days dwindled. On this particular day, I stopped and bought it. I have learned not to argue with hunches and intuition., the communication devices of our guardian angels.
When he opened the Christmas envelope, and saw the membership card, he wasn't very happy about it. However, since he had it, Mark figured that he might as well use it, so an interview and introduction to the club was scheduled. They asked him some health questions and decided that he should have a doctor's examination before they would allow him to exercise. That lead to a treadmill test, which Mark failed and that is how we discovered that my husband had a heart problem.
As it turned out, he had a vessel that was 90% closed off, and an immediate angioplasty and insertion of a stent was required. Now I knew why I had been nagged by the feeling that I must buy a membership in the health club for my husband. Guardian angels are looking after us, if we will only listen.
After recovery from the operation, and a switch to a near fat-free diet, we thought everything would be fine and my husband returned to his job at a local engineering firm.
But, a year later, I received an emergency call at the school where I worked. He had tried to go to work but the pains in his chest forced him to go to the hospital instead. Cells had grown inside the stent and were blocking the flow of blood. Another angioplasty was necessary to expand the stent further.
I believed that the stress of work was too much and that Mark needed to stop working.
The idea of retiring was delicately approached. He could retire and I could continue to work as a teacher; which I loved, and felt I could do for some years to come. "Oh no", he said, "I'm not retiring until you do." "What if we both retired and sold the house. We could buy a motor home and travel the U.S and Canada" I answered trying to convince him that it was time to stop working. "I wouldn't enjoy that" he replied. About now I was becoming desperate. It was obvious Mark had to stop working. "How about buying a sailboat and living aboard in the Keys, Bahamas or the Virgin Islands. Mark is an avid inland sailor; he comes alive in the summer when race season starts. "That sounds like something I would love to do," he said with the biggest smile I had seen in quite a while.
We sold our house, and bought a pop-up trailer so that we could search the Great Lakes and New England areas for a sailboat in our price range. We were very disappointed when we couldn't find one. The boats we did find had been used in chartering or had hurricane damage and would have required too much money to fix. Rejected, we headed back toward the Midwest. Again a guardian angel came to the rescue. Too tired to continue, we stopped at National Dunes Park near Michigan City, Indiana. The next morning we asked a local storekeeper where the sailboat brokers were. He said "No sailboat brokers around here, if anyone wants to sell, they just post it at the marina". We got the location of the marina and drove into town. There on the bulletin board was one lonely piece of paper announcing the need to sell a Mariner 36. We dialed the phone number just to find out more; we had never heard of a Mariner before and were use to looking only at well-known names. The owner told us the slip number and asked us to look at the outside of the boat. If we were still interested then we could call back. She was a pretty little boat with classic lines, white hull with lots of teak and a red sail cover. We liked her immediately, so we called and toured her the next day. John and Jean, the owners of the Mariner 36, named her Sankaty after a lighthouse in Nantucket, MA where John's uncle served in the 40's. They were obviously proud of their boat, and had taken loving care of her. When we descended into the cabin area, we feel in love. She had a teak interior, the look of fine furniture. The Sankaty was home right from the start. We had a survey done within the week, which she passed with flying colors, and we took possession of Sankaty, a 36 foot Mariner, on our 36th Wedding Anniversary.
We now had our floating-home and were looking forward to the adventure and a total change in our life style. By the way, Mark has had no dizzy spells or chest pains since we bought her 10 months ago. We had a great time on the loop and each day we have time for each other and there is very little stress. It was the answer for us. Listen to your guardian angels, there is no greater love, and they will lead the way.
Our single hander from 1991 to 1998
From 450 pounds to 17,500 pounds in less than six months,
in Tarponn Basin awaiting the arrival of the Bimini.
Mooring location just north of the Bay View Bridge
since summer of 2002
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