I had lived in the same little town in Texas for 53 years. Moved there when I was ten. My husband passed away about 12 years ago. I have a son who’s developed the same hereditary blood disease that my husband had. He’s 41, and I wanted to get closer to him.

I was with an empty nest. Most of my relatives had passed away or had moved out of state years ago. One day I woke up and thought: I am going to move to where my son is. I packed up my car and on Thanksgiving I drove out to San Francisco, 2000 miles, the furthest I have ever driven.

My life had become humdrum. Every time my friends and I got together, our conversations devolved into illness and doctor’s visits and all these things that I had always said I would never do. And it dawned on me that I really had lived the same life too long.

Aha moments also happened when I got to San Francisco. I didn’t think I could afford the rents here. My son lives down near the ocean. We walked out to this beautiful park at the beach, and I’m just, ‘Oh My goodness, I wish I could live here,’ walking back, I saw this beautiful place. They had a furnished apartment for rent. I rented it that very day.

I found myself sitting in this little restaurant near my apartment, looking at the ocean, watching the night settle down onto the waves, and I thought, ‘Yikes, I love my life. I may even live to be 100 years old.’ That was my aha moment.

An aha moment is when your plain old life suddenly opens up and it’s like magic. Everything’s beautiful, everything is just where it is supposed to be, and you’re looking around and you’re thanking God.

Every day I get to see my son is a magic moment.