Barbara Johnson is an acclaimed author who shares a personal journey back to Ireland that was sparked by the tragedy of her partner’s sudden death.
Barbara Johnson is an acclaimed author who shares a personal journey back to Ireland that was sparked by the tragedy of her partner’s sudden death. Kathleen’s Irish ancestry led her to discover her own heritage, and many cousins who live still in the northwest of Ireland. Barbara recounts her experiences growing up in a military family, which fostered a love for travel and her emotional journey as she buried Kathleen's ashes in Ireland with her family. The episode dives into themes of loss, travel and the challenges and healing involved in relocations and transitions late in life, touching upon Barbara's thoughts about moving to Ireland and her reflections on writing. Barbara says, "Kathleen used to say her heart was in New York, her body in Maryland, but her soul was in Ireland."
Christi 00:00:03
Moving up, moving out, moving along. Where are you headed next? I'm Christi Cassidy, your host and the creator of Moving Along, a podcast about travel, relocation, and life transitions. Listen in to real-life stories as we explore moving along and what it takes to make your life a positive new adventure.
Christi 00:00:35
Welcome to Moving Along. My guest today is Barbara Johnson, author of lesbian fiction and recipient of the esteemed Alice B. Toklas Medal for her career achievement, writing about lesbian lives. The author of 10 books, she was partnered with author Kathleen DeBold for 30 years. It was Kathleen's untimely death in 2022 that sent Barbara back to Ireland, where she and Kathleen had visited. In fact, Kathleen had obtained Irish citizenship. Barbara went back to bury Kathleen's ashes, and it was this journey that drew me to reconnect with Barbara, to invite her to share her story on Moving Along. Welcome, Barbara.
Barbara 00:01:29
Thank you for having me.
Christi 00:01:31
Thanks for being here. Barbara, you're retired now, a technical editor at the Applied Physics Lab in Maryland, where you live, and you've lived there for, if I'm not wrong, decades, we'll say decades.
Barbara 00:02:00
Well, as a child, when I was very young, it was kind of exciting. And whenever we came to a new place, I would go door to door asking if they had little girls my age.
Christi 00:02:58
Are those the places that stand out to you? Panama...
Barbara 00:03:02
I love Hawaii. Yeah, Hawaii, I loved. I was old enough to remember Hawaii. We were there -- the Kennedy assassination I remember very vividly. I loved Panama. Absolutely loved Panama.
Christi 00:03:15
What did you love about it?
Barbara 00:03:17
Well, I guess the same reason I liked Hawaii. I loved the tropics, I liked the warmth, I loved the flowers. And in Panama, we could go to the beaches. There was this island that we could take a little boat ride to, and I would go with my high school friends and we'd hang out there. And then my family -- we had a boat and we purchased what they call a bohio along the canal. And that was just a little spot where you could put up a shelter and we would take the boat out on the canal and go to the bohio. And just being in the canal was so exciting. And one time when we were heading out there, this big submarine passed us in the middle of the canal there. It was just great fun. And I just loved the ocean and the beach. And, and, and like I said, the tropics. I loved Hawaii's beaches. I liked Panama.
Christi 00:04:18
How many places have you lived? How many countries?
Barbara 00:04:22
Well, let's see, Germany, of course, Germany, Japan, Korea, Panama, and in the States, Colorado, Arizona, Virginia, Florida, Maryland, of course. So those are places that I've lived. Of course, I've visited a lot more.
Christi 00:04:45
Do you keep a tally?
Barbara 00:04:47
No, I haven't. I should.
Christi 00:04:49
You have one of those great big maps with like pushpins, all the places you've been, all the places you visited.
Barbara 00:04:56
Yeah. And of course I visited Ireland.
Christi 00:04:58
What... You did. When was the first time you visited Ireland? Because we are gonna talk a lot about Ireland today.
Barbara 00:05:04
So the first visit was in 2017, shortly after Kathleen had gotten her, well, actually no, she hadn't gotten it yet. Her Irish citizenship. And, and we went there because of her Irish heritage. Her grandmother came over to the States when she was only 17 years old as an indentured servant. And she didn't really talk much about Ireland to Kathleen, but her two brothers had pre... had, had come to the States first. And they supposedly had to flee Ireland because they were in the IRA, the Irish Republican Army. And they kind of had to flee Ireland. So, uh, her grandmother was one of 11 children, and I think 1, 2, 3, 4, I think four or five of the siblings eventually came to the States. But Kathleen always wanted to go back to Ireland and see where her grandmother had been born. And so we just made the decision to do it. And we met...
Christi 00:06:14
That must have been exciting.
Barbara 00:06:16
Oh, it was very exciting. And she has a lot of cousins that live there still. So she met these Irish cousins she didn't really know she had, and they were so welcoming and treated us like one of the family immediately. And she got to see the two room cottage where her grandmother was born and we fell in love with, with Ireland.
Christi 00:06:38
And where was that cottage? What part of Ireland?
Barbara 00:06:41
In County Sligo. And it's near Drumcliffe, which is where the poet Yeats is buried. And there's a little town...
Christi 00:06:51
William Butler Yeats.
Barbara 00:06:53
Yes. And a little town called Grange. So it's up there in this beautiful County Sligo, which means sli...
Christi 00:07:01
Oh, I'm sorry. I was just gonna clarify. This is in the northwest part of Ireland.
Barbara 00:07:07
Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm.
Christi 00:07:08
On the Atlantic.
Barbara 00:07:10
Atlantic Way, it's called.
Christi 00:07:12
The Wild Atlantic Way. That's not just the road, that's the whole, that's how they describe the whole coastline? The Atlantic coastline.
Barbara 00:07:20
Yes. Yeah, you can go from Southern Ireland all the way up the Wild Atlantic Way, as they call it.
Christi 00:07:25
Nice. So did you decide before you went there or did you do the 23 and Me or the ancestry kind of thing first? Or did you just kind of wing it? Did you write letters to these people and say, we're we're gonna be coming soon?
Barbara 00:07:43
Well, no, actually what happened was Kathleen, she had a cousin who lived in New York -- and I can't remember now if it's, you know, first cousin once removed, or second cousin, or whatever. Her name was Kitty. And Kitty was the daughter of Kathleen's grandmother's sister Anna. And after Kathleen's mom died, Kathleen was in touch with Kitty a lot and mentioned that we were going to Ireland. And Kitty said, Oh, I'm gonna write to cousin Maureen and tell her -- Marian -- and tell her you're coming. And that's what she did. And not only did Marian know we were coming, she in turn informed her siblings, Brendan, Noreen, Grace.
Christi 00:08:59
I love it. Here's the whole family is waiting with open arms.
Barbara 00:09:04
Yes.
Christi 00:09:05
Well, what did that feel like for you?
Barbara 00:09:07
It was just so lovely because, like I said, they treated us immediately -- myself included -- as if we were one of the family and, and that they had known us their whole lives. And I have to tell you a funny story about Brendan's wife Josie. So we were visiting with them and, and I had gone off to use the loo
Christi 00:09:39
That's great.
Barbara 00:09:42
And Kathleen said, Oh, we're friends friends. And she said, I thought so. You know, we had gay marriage before you did.
Josie...
Christi 00:09:55
That's, yeah, touche, because it's right. They did. Yeah. Despite the issues with the contraception that they didn't get before we did, but still..
Barbara 00:10:05
Yes. It was just terrific. I mean, they made us feel so welcome.
Christi 00:10:09
That's nice. How long did you stay that first visit?
Barbara 00:10:13
Uh, about two weeks.
Christi 00:10:15
Two weeks. That's nice. Mm-hmm
Barbara 00:10:22
Yes. And then we met all the other cousins, you know, the siblings, Brendan and Marian's siblings. And we actually, after our visit to Ireland, we took the ferry to Wales and took a train from Wales to London because we were catching the Queen Mary 2 to come home. And when we got to London, Grace, one of the siblings who had moved from Ireland to England, she met us in London. So...
Christi 00:10:55
Wow, what a trip. That sounds like a, a lovely first time to Ireland. So you flew over and then you took the Queen Mary 2 back?
Barbara 00:11:04
Yes. Back to the States.
Christi 00:11:06
What was that like?
Barbara 00:11:09
Oh, it's great. It wasn't our first trip on the Queen Mary. So...
Christi 00:11:15
Where else had you gone?
Barbara 00:11:16
Uh, our first trip was in 2010. We went from the U.S. to Norway, Denmark, Germany, and England on the Queen Mary and back.
Christi 00:11:28
Wow.
Barbara 00:11:29
Yeah. I love, I love traveling on the Queen Mary. We also took her to Canada.
Christi 00:11:34
And what is it... You sent me a wonderful picture of you and your mom, right? Was it just you, maybe your mom took the picture when you were just a toddler, right? Sailing from Germany to the U.S. to join your father. He had come ahead, right? Yeah. And so this was in the late '50s?
Barbara 00:11:57
Well, 1958. Yes.
Christi 00:12:01
1958. Yes. And oh, it you, even the MS Seven Seas, right?
Barbara 00:12:07
Yes.
Christi 00:12:08
That was the name of the ship. So, do you think it's like in your blood?
Barbara 00:12:14
Yeah, I think so. You can tell it was very cold 'cause it was in January, that picture
Christi 00:12:20
Mm-hmm
Barbara 00:12:37
Christi 00:12:38
So you went to Ireland and you met all the cousins, and then you had this fabulous journey down to through Wales, to London, and then back on the Queen Mary. It's the Queen Mary 2, right?
Barbara 00:12:52
Yes.
Christi 00:12:54
Mm-hmm
Barbara 00:12:59
Well, the, I guess the next time we went to Ireland was in 2022. Um, Kathleen had actually, she'd gotten a Fulbright Scholarship to, to study at the Gaeltacht College, they call it, which is to learn Irish. She had been learning Irish on her own, and then she had an Irish tutor, so she was learning the Irish language, and she got that in 2020. But of course, COVID shut everything down. And so she tried to go back in 2022, and we made plans for her to go to the college, but for various reasons it just didn't work out. So we ended up just going in 2022, just on our own. We were there about, uh, four weeks. And she stayed in Dublin while I went on a bus tour. And then we hooked up again and drove back to Sligo and stayed at a bed and breakfast. And again, met up with all the cousins who took us all around to see the sites. And unfortunately...
Christi 00:14:08
Is that where the co... Uh, I'm sorry. The Gaeltacht College is in Dublin?
Barbara 00:14:12
It's, no, it's in, I can't remember. It's outside of Dublin.
Christi 00:14:17
Okay. So, continue.
Barbara 00:14:20
And so that was in August. And then, of course, unfortunately Kathleen passed away in October. And you know, I really didn't know what to do about, what to do with her ashes because her parents are at Arlington, so she can't be with them. My parents are at Arlington, I can't be with them. I didn't want to just scatter her ashes somewhere. And I didn't want to buy a plot for us somewhere that would just sit there and nobody would ever visit or know where it was even, maybe. And her cousin Marian said, If you wanna bring Kathleen's ashes to Ireland, she can be buried with her great-grandparents. She just made that, wow, like in December. And she had talked it over with her siblings, and they had all said Yes, but of course. And so I made the arrangements to go, we went in May. So, Kathleen is buried with her great-grandparents, so this is her grandmother's parents. And it's just a lovely, it's lovely. And, uh, my sister came with me and Kathleen's sister and her husband and her brother and his son. They, they came as well.
Christi 00:16:00
And did you do, uh, is, um, did she practice, was she Catholic or did you do a service or?
Barbara 00:16:07
Yes. We were both Catholic, more or less practicing, I'll say. But we, we did have a, the priest from the church did a service at the graveside. I did a reading, Kathleen's sister did a reading, and it was really beautiful because it was a traditional Irish funeral or burial they had when they had opened the grave to put Kathleen's urn in. They had lined the inside with moss and flowers and just the traditional Irish way of, of doing it. And then afterward...
Christi 00:16:44
That sounds beautiful.
Barbara 00:16:45
Yeah. And afterward we went to, uh, one of the relatives, they own a restaurant. We went to the restaurant and had a big feast.
Christi 00:16:56
Mm. I'm just imagining that must have been, well, tell me, what was it like? Was it satisfying? Was it like, what did it feel like?
Barbara 00:17:09
I felt a lot of relief, and I was, and I was very happy because I felt like I had brought her home. Kathleen used to say to me her heart was in New York, because that's where she was born and raised. Her body was in Maryland because that's where she came and settled and lived with me, but her soul was in Ireland. And so I brought her home. And even though I can't visit her, I know she's where she needs to be, and I will be there with her one day.
Christi 00:17:52
Thank you for sharing that. Do you plan to go, I mean, you can go back and visit, right? All the cousins and the...
Barbara 00:17:59
Oh, yes. They said that, you know, I'm welcome anytime. And I'm, I'm actually thinking about going next year, and I don't think I'll have to stay at a B&B this time. I'll probably stay with Marian. She has a house in a little town called Bundoran, and she's a great tour guide.
Christi 00:18:17
Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah. That's a real, that's a milestone, right? Not having to stay in the hotel or a B&B, and stay with actual family. It's just such a moving story. Right.
Barbara 00:18:31
Yeah. And it's kind of interesting myself, my emotions, because I'm not Irish in any way. I did my DNA, I have no Irish at all
Christi 00:18:42
I wanna hear more about that.
Barbara 00:18:44
I feel closer to her family there than I do my own family who is still back in Germany.
Christi 00:18:51
Wow. So you have a lot -- how many siblings do you have? You're the oldest, right?
Barbara 00:18:56
Yes, I have a sister and my younger brother who, who, uh, died in 2020.
Christi 00:19:02
Oh, I'm sorry.
Barbara 00:19:04
My sister's the middle child.
Christi 00:19:06
And your parents are in Arlington, so it's the two of you and any cousins, right?
Barbara 00:19:12
Yeah, the only cousins, the American cousins we have on my father's side, his sister, we have three cousins and that's it. Well, I guess there are probably like second cousins and third cousins somewhere, but who knows? And then in Germany are the German cousins, and my mom's whole family still. But I don't, I don't have as much contact with them, and I don't see them as often. The last time I was in Germany was in, gosh, maybe 2020? No, no, it wasn't even that. Maybe 1990. I'm, I'm not sure. See
Christi 00:20:00
Right. I think, didn't you say that when you went, um, the first time on the Queen Mary 2, you went, did you cut? No.
Barbara 00:20:09
Oh, yes, we did. We stopped in Germany and Hamburg, but I didn't see any family. That was in 20... So, the last time I saw family was in, I went for the Passion Play in 2000.
Christi 00:20:23
Ah, still that's... What is... So, I asked you what travel and moving meant to you as a kid, but what does it mean to you now as an adult?
Barbara 00:20:38
Well, I'm, I'm kind of glad to be like in one place. I do like to travel, but of course now being, uh, widowed, it's, it's kind of, to travel solo is not something I'm really keen to do. I did travel solo last year. I went on the Queen Ann, and I went to Scotland and Iceland. And I really loved, I loved it. I loved seeing those countries, but traveling alone, it was just kind of sad for me.
Christi 00:21:16
You miss Kathleen.
Barbara 00:21:18
I miss her terribly. And, yeah, so I'm, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, you know, get used to traveling solo, but it's, I did that trip and I haven't done any others yet. Yeah, it's just hard to do things on your own period. You know, I've, I've gotten used to it, but...
Christi 00:21:43
I have a friend who's widowed, whose husband died. It was many years ago now, but she wrote an essay that was included in a book called Widows' Words. And I heard the reading, it was up here in the Hudson Valley somewhere, that several of the people, of the contributors, spoke and read some of their work. And one thing that got me was how the theme of firsts over and over, the first time I mowed the lawn by myself, the first time I went to the bank to speak with the bank officer by myself, the first time, you know, all this kind of ordinary stuff that couples, you know, it seems over the years you fall into your routines and your, and just your daily lives in a way that you don't even think about it until suddenly it's like, whoa, I'm the one that has to start the lawnmower.
Barbara 00:22:49
Yes, exactly. Oh, I, I do have to correct you on one thing. You said Kathleen and I were 30 years, we were together 48.
Christi 00:22:59
Oh my gosh. Wow. That is a long time. 48 years?
Barbara 00:23:06
Yes. College sweethearts. Yep.
Christi 00:23:09
College sweethearts. Where did you, where did you go to college? Where did you meet?
Barbara 00:23:13
A college in St. Augustine, Florida, called Flagler College.
Christi 00:23:18
Oh, I've actually heard of it.
Barbara 00:23:20
Yeah. A small liberal arts college. And it had actually only gone co-ed like one or two years before we went. It used to be an all girls school, and then it went co-ed and that's where we met.
Christi 00:23:35
Wow. 48 years and... So, all the more reason that this widowhood is still, it's, yeah, it's not gonna be one year of grief and grieving. No, no. That's, that's a long time to be with someone.
Barbara 00:23:56
And I think I will be grieving the rest of my life.
Christi 00:23:59
Yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine. You do have... You did tell me that you were headed to Alaska this year, later this year. Is that right?
Barbara 00:24:12
Yes, in September I'm going with my sister and her husband on the Queen Elizabeth.
Barbara 00:24:21
I do!
Barbara 00:24:29
Well, actually Kathleen and I had booked a, a cruise to Alaska back in 2020. And as you know, COVID came along and put the kibosh on that. And my sister and her husband, they've always wanted to go to Alaska too. And so we just said, Hey, why not? Let's go.
Christi 00:24:54
That's wonderful. And where do you fly to like San Francisco and go out of there, or how does it, where are you going from?
Barbara 00:25:02
It leaves from Seattle. And I actually hate to fly, and so I'm taking the train.
Christi 00:25:11
Excellent! Amtrak! Are you gonna go through Canada or that Canadian train, or are you gonna go across, straight across, right, from, like, Minneapolis, it goes due west, right, to Seattle?
Barbara 00:25:23
Yeah. In Chicago is where I, I change trains. So the train I take from D.C. to Chicago. I change trains and then go to Seattle. So it's a three-day trip.
Christi 00:25:37
On the train. That's pretty fast, actually.
Barbara 00:25:40
Yeah. Yeah.
Christi 00:25:42
Where did, where does the train, how do you get the, you don't come up through the Hudson Valley then and across from Albany? No, no, no. From D.C., you must go. How does it, how does the Amtrak go to Chicago? Where, which direction? You go through Pennsylvania or something?
Barbara 00:25:58
Yeah. So it's not the northeast corridor train, which is, might be what you're familiar with. The one that goes to Boston, New York and D.C., all along the East Coast there.
Christi 00:26:10
Mm-hmm
Barbara 00:26:14
I, I couldn't tell you. I don't know what, what, what, uh, all the other stops in between.
Christi 00:26:20
No. Okay. Okay. I didn't know if it went... Yeah. Which way. Well, I have to look on a map, but I love the train, I will say. So you're gonna get a sleeper and you're gonna have a fabulous time on that train and read lots of books, or do you write on the train?
Barbara 00:26:37
No, sadly, I don't write anymore.
Christi 00:26:40
No, really?
Barbara 00:26:42
No. Nope.
Christi 00:26:45
Was this a conscious decision?
Barbara 00:26:47
Yeah, kind of. I just, you know, it wasn't giving me much pleasure anymore.
Christi 00:26:52
When did you stop?
Barbara 00:26:54
Uh, it's been a while, probably at least 10 years. I think the last thing I wrote was a novella for one of the Bella books. There were four of us who wrote these novellas.
Christi 00:27:12
Aren't they kind of like anthologies?
Barbara 00:27:14
Yeah. But it's, it's four, four novellas in each one.
Christi 00:27:19
Got it.
Barbara 00:27:20
And, you know, I might've done a few short stories for some of the anthologies, but yeah, it's been at least, yeah, it's been at least 10 years.
Christi 00:27:31
Well, I wondered if -- and I don't know if you ever wrote poetry -- but I do wonder if the connection with Ireland, the land of Yeats -- William Butler Yeats -- drew you to poetry or to writing?
Barbara 00:27:49
I've never been a poet, but Kathleen, she wrote poetry and she absolutely loved, loved Irish poetry.
Christi 00:27:58
There's nothing quite like it in the world. It's true. So do you have her poems? Do you read her poems?
Barbara 00:28:07
Yes, I still have some of them.
Christi 00:28:09
And do you read poetry?
Barbara 00:28:13
Not really. I was a big fan of the metaphysical poets back when I was in college. Well, the romantic poets. Shelley, Byron, John Donne. I love Christina Rosetti.
Christi 00:28:30
I always thought she was undervalued. It's like somehow got shunted into, uh, elementary and grade school, um, English books and, and was not, never really appreciated enough by the wider literary community. That's great that you say that.
Barbara 00:28:51
Yeah. No, I don't read poetry, but Kathleen, she read it all the time.
Christi 00:28:56
Huh. Interesting. Do you read fiction these days, or are you reading... What are you reading?
Barbara 00:29:04
I love detective novels, mysteries. So I love, like, Anne Perry, Louise Penny, Karin Slaughter. So I read all those murder and mayhem books.
Christi 00:29:36
That's great. So you've gotta have quite a lot of time on your hands on that train to Seattle.
Barbara 00:29:47
Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I gotta feel that book in my hands.
Christi 00:29:53
Barbara 00:29:58
Probably.
that I can leave behind. So, like, you know, I'll finish a book and leave it at the bed and breakfast where we're staying.
Christi 00:30:22
Mm-hmm
Barbara 00:30:26
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Christi 00:30:28
Leave it for the next person. And you're gonna do that on the train?
Barbara 00:30:34
Probably. I'll probably bring a couple of books. Well, I mean, I could probably, yeah, I'll bring a couple of books that I'll leave behind when we come back.
Christi 00:30:44
Have you ever done a long train trip before...
Barbara 00:30:47
Uh, yeah.
Christi 00:30:49
...besides in Europe? Well, in Europe, right?
Barbara 00:30:50
Well, not in overnight. I took the bullet train when I was in Germany one time from Frankfurt to Berlin. That's pretty awesome.
Christi 00:31:00
That is a great trip. Yeah.
Barbara 00:31:04
Kathleen and I, one time we did do the Canadian train, but Kathleen, when she was working, she took the train several times across country to the west, because she didn't like to fly either. And when she had to go to meetings in California and Colorado, she, she took the train. So she'd been on several of Amtrak's different trains, Christi 00:31:29 Good for her. The different routes.
Barbara 00:31:30
Yeah. This will be my first east to west train. I've done the train several times up and down the East Corridor to Florida, for example. But this'll be my first one, east to west through the U.S.
Christi 00:31:46
That's great. I hope you have a wonderful time. And
Barbara 00:32:07
Well, not having really done much of it yet, I guess what I'm looking at, and I guess what they would look at is there, I know there are groups, organizations that cater to solo travelers and women travelers especially. I would suggest always being in a group for safety. So go with a group, go with a, a tour. Myself, I would not travel just totally by myself, but, you know, some women are more brave, but always let people know where you're going. If you have an itinerary, I'm gonna be in Arizona on Thursday, and if you don't get to Arizona on Thursday, people maybe find out what's happened. So, like I said, I travel in groups, travel with a tour, let people know where you're going, what when you're supposed to be there. Just check in frequently and don't go off alone with a stranger.
Christi 00:33:28
I didn't hear about that. What, what happened? She just went off with a guy and then, so she's a dis... She's, she's like an amber alert now?
Barbara 00:33:38
Well, I think they pretty much figured out that she's, she's dead, unfortunately.
Christi 00:33:44
That he killed her?
Barbara 00:33:44
No, they don't think so. They think that what happened is that they, uh, she got pulled under, that she drowned. The two of them supposedly went in, went to the beach at night, they went into the water. The water was very rough. He got out. He thought she was behind him. He passed out on the beach. And when he woke up, you know, she was nowhere to be seen, so...
Christi 00:34:13
That's awful. That's awful.
Barbara 00:34:15
Yeah.
Christi 00:34:16
This is real life. Unlike the Louise Penny books that you're reading.
Barbara 00:34:32
No, I don't. Actually, I've never heard a podcast before, until I listened to one of yours recently.
Christi 00:34:41
Oh, thank you. I'm glad you did. Which one did you listen to, just out of curiosity?
Barbara 00:34:46
Uh, I forget her name, but she did the one on relocating a lot.
Christi 00:34:52
Ooh. Was it Devra?
Barbara 00:34:55
Yes, I think that was it. One of more recent ones. She was giving tips about relocating, the things that you should do.
Christi 00:35:04
Yeah, she, she wrote a book called A Happy Move and
Barbara 00:35:15
It's very scary to me. I've been here for so long and when we did do all that moving, when I was a child, there were always other people who did the packing for you. So the idea of packing up my house is just so overwhelming. I've thought about where would I move? Delaware is high on my list. I know a lot of people who have moved to Rehoboth Beach and Lewes, so I'd have people that I know there. And my other possibility was moving down to Southern Virginia, where my sister lives, but that's Trump country.
Christi 00:35:59
Yes, it is.
Barbara 00:36:00
I don't know anyone down there except her and her husband and my nieces and nephews. And if something happened to her, then I'd be, like... You know, nieces and nephews could give a darn about me, so, you know, I'd be pretty much alone, so that's very intimidating and scary. And then I thought about moving to Ireland, believe it or not. I think that Brendan and Marian and Noreen would all make me feel welcome. Probably help me find a place to live.
Christi 00:36:32
Mm-hmm
Barbara 00:36:32
But that's very intimidating as well, moving across the ocean.
Christi 00:36:39
Yeah. Although
Barbara 00:36:51
Right. And I think if I was gonna do that, uh, the first thing I would need to do is get my German citizenship. Having, uh, been born there. I have my German birth certificate, I have my baptism certificate. I think it would be a very easy for me to get my dual German American citizenship, which would give me an EU passport, which means I could live in any EU country and not have to worry about visas.
Christi 00:37:26
Yes, it would. That, boy, that sounds like a plan, Barbara.
Barbara 00:37:39
Yep. I just have to get brave and get out of my inertia. And it would be hard to leave Maryland. I mean, I've lived here for a couple of decades now, and I love my house. I love our garden that Kathleen did. I have friends here. It would be hard to leave.
Christi 00:38:04
Some people go back and forth. Six months here, six months there, right?
Barbara 00:38:08
Yeah. I could do without the winters here, that's for sure.
Christi 00:38:11
They're a little different in Ireland, but it's still kind of cold over there, I think. Not quite Panama.
Barbara 00:38:18
No.
Christi 00:38:21
They don't get what?
Barbara 00:38:22
Blizzards.
Christi 00:38:24
Barbara 00:38:55
Yeah. A lot of rain.
Christi 00:38:58
Yeah, a lot of rain.
Barbara 00:39:00
As far as Ireland is concerned, you know, they always call, they call it the Emerald Isle, and that's a very apt name. The green in Ireland is unlike the green I've seen anywhere else. I mean, we have beautiful green forests and things here in the U.S., but there's something about the green of Ireland that is just so different and so special.
Christi 00:39:39
Thank you for listening. I'm Christi Cassidy, your host. We'll be back next time with more stories of travel, relocation and life transitions on Moving Along.