2012 Recap

2012 was quite a year for me.  One of the best years of my entire life was bookended by the death of my mother and grandmother...  In chronological order, here we go!

In January I sold a mobile home on Gieger Key.  It was listed for only a few months and I went all out on the multimedia part - videos, high end digital photography, virtual tours, etc.  Did some very interesting showings, including a couple of drifters who were probably setting me up for murder, robbery or something.  Apparently owning a bright red Mercedes Benz and only having one listing - an old mobile home - can cause some problems.  Sold the house and later sold the car.  From now on I'm an "everyman's agent" and rock the 2002 4Runner to cart my clients around in.

February brought the death of my grandmother.  She was 90 years old and had lingered for many years after a crippling stroke.  The wake and funeral were in Beacon, NY; my Mom's old neighborhood.  It was cold and dark - very depressing.  The worst part of a wake is knowing that some in the room is bound to be next.  We all feared that it would be my Mom who was battling trough her 7th year of Cancer treatment.  I'll never forget the cold morning of the funeral where my brother, cousins and brother-in-law were the pallbearers.  Waiting for the hearse to pull up in front of the church, a snow flurry erupted.   Maybe I look for signs too much but it was touching.

In March I started working for Lisa Ferringo.  She's incredible at what she does and it has been an eye opening experience to say the least.  Reserved, calculating individuals like myself should never go into sales because we lack the most important piece of the sales puzzle - outgoing personality.  But once we get that going in the right direction, I hope to be unstoppable.  Lisa and I have had a few miscommunications along the way because I'm willing to give up when the situation seems impossible.  She's taught me to never give up, never be embarrassed and that a good frame of mind is key.

In July Mary Jo and I went to Turkey!  It was absolutely incredible.  Here are 500+ photos! Life changing to say the least.  MJ and I spent the last two days trying to figure out how on earth we could describe our adventures to our friends and family back home and realized we couldn't.  So we didn't.  But the pictures sure are cool!  We spent a few days in Istanbul site seeing (Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Grand Bazzarre, etc.) circled the country on a brand new tour bus.  We stopped and checked out underground cities, hiked enormous canyons, partied with Russians, explored the land the land bridge between Asian and Europe that has been crossed by so many humans over thousands of years.  Hot springs, salt lakes, ancient battle grounds, museums, insane food - it was great.  We spent a night in Kusadasi at a five star resort, top floor, corner suite over looking the Mediterranean ocean.  It was amazing.  Made lots of friends with the Aussies.

August and September were comprised of some tough real estate moments for me.  Endless inspections, deals falling apart left and right.  I wasn't ready for this kind of stuff and made a ton of mistakes.  Lisa is fearless and can fix anything.  I learned a lot about not giving up and pushing through to the end. 

October began the down hill path of my Mom's health.  The chemotherapy was frying her brain and not stopping the cancer's advancement.  What had begun as ovarian cancer in 2005 was now everywhere, pushing against her digestive organs and lungs making life very difficult.  There were many things going wrong at once and the oncologist made the decision to stop treatment and change gears to Hospice care.  Mom checked out mentally but never stopped trying to communicate with family.  I spent two weeks helping my Dad transition my Mom from normal life to ... well... not so normal life that included being stuck in bed.  My sister and brother also came.  Hurricane Sandy ripped through the state while I was there (Connecticut) and downed a bunch of trees in the back yard.  We were very lucky they fell the way that they did...

I returned to Key West in a daze in early November.  I was worthless and depressed.  My brother Tim stayed to help my Dad and my sister would spend her weekends at my parent's house.  This made it bearable for me but only barely.  Watching a loved one come to terms with the end of their life is the worst.  That's what I thought anyway until I witnessed the end of life.

To cheer me up, my wife brought me to the NASCAR finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.  We really enjoy the racing and it did help to take my mind off of everything that was going wrong with the world.  To sweeten the pot MJ bought us tickets to the Patriots/Dolphins football game in Miami in early December.  While driving up to the game I got a phone call from my sister who hinted that things were going downhill pretty quick now.  Talk about difficult decisions.... I skipped the game and flew home.  From the time my sister and I spoke to the time I got to the front door was less than 12 hours. 

My mom's death was difficult to witness.  I'll spare the blogosphere with the details but at 3:17am on December 7th I texted my sister "We are getting close Karen, Say a prayer for quick passage."  Anything but quick, she hung on for another five hours which incredibly was the exact amount of time it took for my sister to travel 300 miles from her home in upstate New York to my parent's house.  Mom passed surrounded by her husband, daughter and two sons.

The wake was difficult.  I was surprised by my college friends and a few friends from high school too.  People that really care about me.  It was very special to see them.  The funeral was very nice and well orchestrated at St. Joseph's.  My brother-in-law delivered a eulogy that was beautiful.  It was good closure. 

Somewhere along the way I closed on the Shark Key house that I first listed back in 2010!  Finally sold for $1,025,000.  What a roller coaster that was!  As always, couldn't' have done it with out my boss.

MJ and I spent Christmas in Key West this year.  It was nice to see our local friends on Christmas eve and enjoy time away from family.  That sounds bad but I needed a holiday of peace and comfort.  We painted the apartment and had lots of cocktails!   New Years was a blast too.  I think we watched the shoe drop?  Who knows.  ;o)

Here we are - at the beginning of 2013.  NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN THIS YEAR.  Only good stuff.  I'm very excited about the possibilities and looking forward to getting a lot of listings and closing on a lot of deals. 

Happy New Year everyone!