John and I have been married for twenty-plus years. Some may say that the reason for our marriage longevity is the fact that he worked away from home for most of that time. I prefer to think that it stems from the fact that we were great friends long before we started dating and I feel that is often a solid foundation for any relationship.
John was a Project Manager for construction projects all over the planet, mainly in North America, but also as far away as Europe and South Korea. With a young son (Rob) to raise, two dogs and two horses, a great deal of responsibility fell to me to keep things going on the home front. It is not an easy lifestyle when one of the partners lives and works far from home. Rob and I had to figure out how to take care of a lot of things on our own and when John would come home, he was unfamiliar with our routines and also being used to doing things his own way, so the odd clash was inevitable. The things he hated most were being far away when bad stuff happened and never really belonging anywhere. He was not home enough to get involved in anything in the community and the relationships and friendships he made on the job, always came to an eventual end. I never truly understood this until quite recently when I was able to accompany him on a project off and on over a couple of years and got just a taste of what he had gone through over all this time. I really don’t know how he did it but it became clear that it could go on no longer – he had had enough and it was time for a change! I really feel both his health and his sanity were in jeopardy.
We had invested a great deal of money and effort into making our home a great place to be and he had never actually had the opportunity to live here. Unfortunately, there was not a great call for his line of work in Muskoka and in the current economy any sort of job is scarce. So the next question was, do we move to a larger centre or make a stand here. That decision was made a little easier by the fact that John had also had quite enough of the construction industry in general, so it made no sense to move to find work that he no longer wanted to do anyway. So our focus turned to ways we could earn a living in our own back yard – literally. After looking for possible opportunities in our hometown, we decided to take advantage of what existed on our own property. It’s been quite a change to see my husband go from leaving for work lugging a bulging suitcase, not being certain when I might see him again to watching him walk across the driveway with his cup of tea, knowing he will be back for lunch. I love that!