So Very Far Away

The night Bryan learned that he had been offered a job with the IRL in Auckland, he and Jane went out to celebrate at Nevin's Pub. Over burgers and Guinnesses, they discussed the pros and cons of moving halfway around the world. Jane had a two-week-old Sheil bulletin in her bag, and on the bag of this pink leaflet, they plotted out their thoughts. On the pro side was an exotic location, an interesting job, a chance to have an in depth experience of a foreign culture but one in which English was still spoken, and a good time to try something new: they didn't have children yet and both careers were pretty flexible. The con side consisted of adapting to a new place and dealing with immigration, living in a more expensive place, Jane's potential difficulties with getting a job, and, of course, the distance from family, friends, and everything they knew. When they boiled down their lists to the essential points that were of most importance to them, it was a battle between a cool place to discover and being so very far away. It took them a little over a week to decide that, though it would be difficult to be so far away, they wanted to see something new.

In making this decision, Bryan and Jane both acknowledged that there would be moments when being far away would seem like an overwhelming burden, when they could feel, in the very depths of their beings, the vast ocean that separated them from the world they had always known and those they loved. What they didn't suspect at the time was just how quickly this sense of distance would visit them.

They were almost through their first full week in New Zealand, when Bryan and Jane called home to update their families on their progress with finding a place to live and getting settled in. Jane took her shower while Bryan typed his family's phone number into their Skype homepage and connected with the phone lines in the US. Freshly cleaned for the day, Jane emerged from the bathroom to find Bryan sitting on the bed in the hotel room staring at his computer with a stony expression on his face.

"Is everything alright?" asked Jane fearing that something terrible had happened.

"My family was just getting back from Pop's funeral. He died a few days ago," Bryan said flatly. "We are so very far away, aren't we?"

Bryan's grandfather had not been doing well for a while, and when Jane and Bryan had talked about moving to Auckland, the possibility that they would miss the funerals of family members had come up, but they had thought that that particular situation would not arise for some time. Now they were confronted with the true reality of the downside to moving to New Zealand: missing the chance to say goodbye to those they loved and to support their loved ones who were left behind.

Bryan and Jane held each other and cried. "He's in a better place," Bryan remarked, "but it is still sad." Bryan understood why his family had delayed in telling him about his grandfather's death, and though he wished he could have been there with them to say goodbye to his Pop, he knew that he was still connected to them all despite the distance and was with them in spirit if not in person. Bryan knew that his family was excited for him to be in Auckland and that they were proud of him for setting off on such an adventure, but at that moment he knew what it meant to be so far away.

Bryan and Jane request that those who read this blog take a moment to say a prayer for the soul of Cyril Kuhl, that he is rejoicing in heaven.