Great Expectations Dashed the First Year

By Elsie McFarland

In September, 2003, after years of traffic-clogged drives from Portland to visit family on Orcas, I signed papers on a nice little Orcas Island house. It was perfect. Two grown children, three grandchildren, and moi—grandma—all nicely situated on an idyllic island. We all lived happily ever after.

But not the way you think.

Contrary to my “Great Expectations”, within a year, they all moved away. Here I was, ready to spend my retirement surrounded by family, and instead I was abandoned on a remote island, in the middle of the Straits of San Juan.

The first year was the hardest.  Alone, disappointed, full of self-pity, I continued with the house decor, ordering the obligatory patchwork coverlets from Eddie Bauer, and spending time haunting rug and art auctions, garage sales.  On trips back to Orcas from Portland, I filled my car with found treasures to enhance my home. It was all I knew to do. Fuss, fuss, fuss.

Soon every wall and floor were covered.  I started taking naps in the afternoon. I joined reading and writing groups, continued with Yoga classes, even entertained guests from time to time with my spiffy new red dishware from Pier One, sweating bullets the whole day, out of practice in the kitchen. My culinary expertise was pretty much reduced to waffles, tuna fish or toasted cheese sandwiches, and red or green pasta.

The first year into my solitude, I really missed the little ones, the baby-sitting, the delight of being immersed once more in all the innocence and purity of the young. But the naps were good, and the long un-interrupted chats with the old-timers at Teezers, were pleasant and more often than not, stimulating.

And then one dark and stormy February evening, I met a kilt-wearing certifiably genuine Scotsman: Denny. A grown-up kid whose attic was full of Coca-Cola memorabilia, and enough Christmas paraphenalia to decorate the White House.

That was Serendipity. And what happened next will be contained in Chapter Two of “Great Expectations: Orcas Style.” Which, by the way, will feature the Green Bay Packers.