The Trip We Kept Postponing
They planned the trip three times. Each time there was a good reason to wait.
Picture a couple named Herb, 71, and Selma, 69. They have a photograph on the refrigerator of a fishing village in Norway, with red houses along the water. Selma cut it out of a magazine when she was 50. It has faded from sun on the refrigerator door.
They planned the trip three times. Each time there was a good reason to wait.
| When they planned it | What they said | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| The year Herb turned 60 | "After the roof is done." | The roof took the money |
| Two years later | "After the baby is born." | Their first grandchild arrived, and they stayed close |
| The year Herb turned 66 | "Next spring, when the knee is better." | The knee needed a second operation |
Each reason was a good one. Neither of them blamed the other.
One evening last winter, Selma took the photograph off the refrigerator and put it on the kitchen table.
"Herb, I did the arithmetic," she said. "We have the money. We have had the money for years."
"We have the money for the trip," Herb said. "We do not know what else we will need money for."
"We do not know that either way," Selma said. "I would like to see what the photograph looks like in person."
Herb looked at the photograph for a while. The trip they had pictured at 60 had long walks in it, and a ferry up the coast with a lot of stairs. He asked Selma what she wanted from the photograph. She said she wanted to sit by that water with him and have a coffee. She did not need the ferry.
That changed the question for both of them. They had been waiting for the trip to be possible, and what they wanted was smaller than the trip they had been waiting for.
They looked up flights for the same week the following month. Herb asked whether that was too soon. Selma said she had waited nineteen years. They booked a hotel with an elevator, a short stay, and a window that faced the water.
Herb put the photograph back on the refrigerator. Selma wrote the dates on a card and stuck it next to it with a magnet.
You could…
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Find the picture, the brochure or the list that has been waiting longest, and ask what is the smallest version of it you would still enjoy.
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Look at flights and hotels for a date within the next few months, only to see the real price.
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Tell one person the dates you picked, so that someone else is waiting for the postcard.
What trip did you postpone, and what finally moved it? Share it here. Someone reading may be looking at a faded picture on their own refrigerator.
Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data.
Tell us in the comments