The Back Story
This story starts about a year and-a-half ago when Deniz and I decided that we didn’t want to just dream about adventures in life, but live them. We wanted to travel a bit within the US, but then we wanted to live a simpler life – one with less “stuff” and a slower pace. We originally had our sights set on moving to Peru, the Sacred Valley region, but over time, that didn’t check all teh boxes we were looking for, so we decided on Belize.
Making huge life changes requires planning, especially when you are parents and caretakers of other people. In 2018, my mother moved in with us because she was disabled and had the beginning stages of dementia. Three years ago, Deniz quit his job and became my mother’s full time caretaker, as her Alzheimer’s progressed into needing round-the-clock care.
We also had Zoe completing hight school, then going off to college. She was born and raised in our house, so transitioning out of the only home she had ever known to strike out and begin adulting somewhere else was huge.
Then, there was the question of work. I was selling my tech company and really wanted to work in the herbalism space where I was in school and learning myself. I had been volunteering for Herbalists Without Borders (HWB) and wanted something along those lines, but everything I applied for was like throwing my resume into the online abyss.
Manifesting Your Life
I really wanted to be in an ideal work situation, so I worked a spell to manifest the job of my dreams. I was very specific about what I wanted – the type of work, the people I’d work with, the people I’d work to serve, a remote job, and one with enough money to cover my bills without worry.
The first step felt like it landed when I was asked to sit on the board of HWB. Thirty days later, I was asked to leave the board so I could become the co-Executive Director. A few months later I finalized the sale of my tech company. It was all falling into place.
Helping Family
Zoe is our youngest, so having her secure was so important to us. She graduated high school in the top twelve percent of her class which qualified her for the NJ Stars program – 100% of her tuition paid for by the State of NJ if she went to community college. Our local community college has a top notch fine arts program, so she went there and ended up graduating at the top of her class with honors and a 3.99 GPA! She was awarded a hefty scholarship to a fine arts college near Salem, MA, so this summer she and her friend (also admitted to this fine arts college) found an apartment in Salem. Zoe applied for a management position at a local health foods market and was offered the job at the pay she requested.
My mother’s condition was getting to the stage where it was beyond our care capabilities so last January, I went back to Virginia where she was from, and interviewed assisted living facilities. When I found the perfect place (with a memory care facility across the street), we settled on a July 6th move-in date.
Things were falling into place.
June 5th
My mother always used a 3-wheel walker to get around. She had vertigo from a previous traumatic brain injury (thus the disability), and could not move around the house without it. On June 5, 2026 my mom fell. She slipped in the hall and fell onto her hip and butt. She’s not a small woman and she hit her head – there was blood – so we called 911. When her CT scan and x-rays came back, the doctor told us she had broken her hip and would need a partial hip replacement surgery. It was scheduled for the next day.
About an hour before surgery, a urologist came in and told us that mom had total blockage in one kidney and it had shrunk down to practically nothing. He offered to do a shunt surgery to bypass that kidney as the hip surgeon was replacing her hip. When I asked if it was a permanent solution, he said, “No, it will need to be replaced every 2-3 months.” I asked what would happen if we didn’t do it and he said nothing, as the other kidney was functioning just fine. He was trying to upsell an unnecessary surgical procedure to an 80 year old woman with Alzheimer’s! I was furious.
Just before her surgery, the anesthesiologist came in to speak to us about mom. She told us that every time you go under, it agens the brain about 10 years and it would accelerate her Alzheimer’s.
This was a blow to hear, as she was pretty able to do quite a bit on her own (get dressed, eat herself, shower herself with assistance getting in and out of the bathtub, etc.). She had the surgery and the surgeon said everything went really well. She had to have several units of blood, so they would monitor her hemoglobin levels, then release her to rehab.
After a week in the hospital, she was finally sent to a local rehab hospital. I told them repeatedly that she didn’t understand what was happening and would try to get up on her own but they refused to listen. She went to rehab on a Wednesday afternoon. I visited her several times a day every day. On the next Saturday, I went to see her in the morning and she wasn’t in her room. The nurses didn’t know where she was either. After a solid 5 minutes of searching the floor, they found her down a different wing in a raised bed – she had managed to pull herself out of the wheelchair and get into another bed that was completely elevated!
While in this rehab hospital, they lost her twice and she fell twice, with the last fall warranting another x-ray.
As Medicare would only cover 2 weeks of rehab, when her time was up, we decided to go ahead and move her into assisted living early. We hired a medical transport company to drive her 7 hours to central VA so she would be under a nurses care while in transit.
Deniz and I (with Odin, our dog) also drove to VA and stayed with her through the weekend to make sure she got settled in. We stopped by to see her Monday morning before starting the 7 hour drive back home to NJ. After 6 hours of driving, I got a call that mom had fallen again and this time, she shattered the hip that was just operated on. I got home and the next day, hopped on Amtrak to go back to VA.
The Red House
Mom is finally settled. It was actually a blessing that everything happened when it did. Don’t get me wrong – I would not wish on anyone what my mom endured (you got the abridged version above!), but mom’s anxiety was sky high all the time and having to deal with contractors in the house woudl have sent her over the edge.
We had several days worth of work done to prepare our home for market in August. We’ve had electricians, contractors, and masons working hard so far, with painters and plumbers upcoming. Most of our stuff has to go. It is too expensive to move it and frankly, we want a simpler life with much less stuff. We have been giving away all our furniture, my whole apothecary, tools, and more. We have so much more to get rid of. In fact, because we live on a busy corner, we play a little game – put it on the curb and take bets about how fast it will be gone. Sometimes, it’s gone before we even get our shoes off when we come back in the house!
If you live in Central Jersey and are in need of household items, keep an eye on the “Buy Nothing” group on Facebook. I always post pictures there.
Eddie The RV
Part of Deniz and my manifestation plan was to be able to travel around the US before we moved to Belize. I am SUCH a privileged person and grateful beyond belief. My uncle is fully retired and had a 2014 Mercedes interstate Airstream RV that he no longer wanted the responsibility of the maintenance and upkeep, so he gifted it to us. We named it Eddie because Deniz and my uncle both jokingly call each other Eddie.
We flew out to Palm Springs, CA and are currently driving it back across the US with Odin. You can follow our daily adventures through our social media (Facebook and Instagram – @GlitterWitchGardens) and get more in-depth stories and resources in our private community.
Once our house goes on the market, we will live in Eddie full-time, working from the road while traveling to meet our friends and family. Then, after one last visit to see Zoe and pick up Freyr, our cat, we will head off to Belize to begin our next adventure.
Wrapping This Up
There is so much that goes into planning a huge move like this and it shouldn’t be taken lightly, but if you want something bad enough, you can manifest it into being. We have had (and will continue to have) big hiccups along the way. That’s okay. It makes for great stories later in life.
If you are interested in keeping up with the messy details of our adventure, if you believe in and love magic, or you just want to hang out with a community promises. of witchy-like people, be sure to join our private community. For 2026, it’s free and will be forever for those who are members in 2026 or earlier (or you are a Manifestation Planner customer).
If you’d like to stay connected with us, you can sign up for our newsletter. I’ll try to be better about sending one out more regularly, but I cannot make any promises. 😉
