Let me start by saying this... the absolute best week of my life was when myself, my wife and my two young children (7 & 9) took our first road trip from Vermont to WDW in 1983. We made many trips after that, unfortunately, at the time, we couldn't afford to make it a yearly thing, but, we went as often as we could. Things changed through the years, I took physically and mentally challenged people there as guide and caretaker, went a few times with just my wife. Sometimes when my daughter was in college she flew in from New Orleans to join her mother and I or my group that I escorted for a few days. Eventually both my girls got married, one asked for a trip to WDW as a wedding present (she got it). Again times changed. My wife and I divorced, the kids had their own life to build and I started to go solo. Occasionally, I went on trips there with my kids and their families, even at one point paid for everyone to go and had a huge 11 person gathering, but, mostly over the last 15 years have been solo.
My first solo was sort of a mix of fun and melancholy. I can remember sitting on a bench and looking around and all these images of those trips, especially the first one, jumped into my mind occasionally bringing tears to my eyes. I knew it was never going to be the same again because it was a journey with the people you loved that made it so special. It was also a very difficult time in my life. I had to close my nursing home, took a job I hated beyond my ability to describe it. My wife had left, my kids were creating their own memories... probably the lowest point in my life, ironically, in the very same place that once was the highest point of my life.
After giving myself a short period of time to indulge in self pity, I decided to just do whatever I could to move on and make the best of what I was deeply, emotionally being controlled by. Again, ironically, I went to CoP. When we first went to CoP in 1983 the theme was "Now is the best time of your life" and indeed it was. The kids picked up on that song and remembered it after the first exposure. We sang that all the way back to Vermont. On my first solo trip, they had just reinstated the "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" theme. There couldn't have been better timing then if I had come up with it myself. I left with a resolve to make the best of what life currently was and how I was going to make it better. I no longer have my original family to travel with, but, our time of sharing, way back when, made us solidly closer, we share many things now, just not often, our trips to WDW. I will, hopefully, always have the memories of the past because they were great, but, I have since made my current experiences be as important and as great as the old ones, just different. That past few years since that first solo, have been great.
, and if I have to go to WDW alone...I will.
