Granny Nanny

I've just started a position as a nanny for a two-year-old. A year ago I couldn't have imagined this, but then a lot has changed for me from last year, as it has for so many people.

But it definitely would have been a stretch. So how did it happen? I had been self-employed for the past five years or so, since leaving my last position as a pastor in a Protestant denomination. That had always been touch and go, up and down from the beginning. But when the recession hit about the end of 2007, things gradually went down hill for the most part financially. It really was a whole series of things that seemed to impact me, but most noticably in 2008 when fuel prices rose so high and didn't got down, things became very difficult.

The problems were mostly caused by my having borrowed money for my business on credit cards, always assuming that once the business was established I would pay off. Over the first several years I still had a quite a bit of savings and investment from IRAs in reserve that I used to make up shortfalls, pay health insurance and so on. But in 2008 I was hit with a high tax bill, then I had this cash flow crunch due to falling income, and the markets began dropping. I realized that my reserves would no longer be the cushion I had counted on.

I am a single woman, 61 years old with two grown children who are married, but were living a distance from where I was. On my semi-annual vacation visit last summer, my daughter-in-law asked if I might like to move to where they lived. I had been coming out for years, but had never considered a move because I had always hoped they would move back to the Midwest, (as her parents did). Suddenly it seemed like a sensible move, so when I went home I listed my condo for sale. Since I had some equity in it, I thought the sale would cover both moving and also give me some funds to pay down the debts.

Only it didn't sell. Initially I got an offer that my realtor considered so low-ball that it wasn't worth a formal counter. The person actually came back with a higher one a couple weeks later, but again I hesitated, since the offer was so much lower than what seemed to be the market value at that time. Bad mistake, because it would be the only offer for a long time. The news with real estate and then banking only went from bad to worse until the financial crisis of September.

Meanwhile I was under an extreme amount of stress due to my cash flow issues. I felt like I was painted into the corner, hemmed in and unable to make any move that would improve the situation.

Then in October disaster struck, when I received a diagnosis of breast cancer. I had a lumpectomy and radiation treatment. Over Christmas I was able to spend the holiday with both of my children and their families including my five grandchildren. To me, being with them was the best medicine I could have.

I made a definite decision to move to where my son and daughter in law lived, and that I would do whatever it took to sell my condo and go. It took months, but eventually I received an offer that was way lower than the one I had rejected last year; but I took it.

And then my son and his wife asked if I would consider being a nanny for their younger son. So that's how I became a nanny, because my family like so many others is doing what we can to help each other get through these times.

And I am just so blessed, thankful and grateful to have this fantastic opportunity.

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