Trading our Sorrows: A Story of Grief on the Road

No, this isn’t your typical RVing how-to story. But hang in there. It’s about lessons we can all learn from during a time many of us will face on the road.

The Backstory

Philip’s mother passed away about 3 years prior to us meeting. Philip is the youngest of 6 children and his sister, Kim, was 23 years his senior. With his mom not around and his daddy an advanced age, Kim became my go-to source for family information and my helper in navigating their large spreadout family.

Last summer, we spent 9 weeks camp hosting in the same town as Kim. During this time she and her husband would make trips out to the camp to have dinner with us or to bring us donuts and chat. By the time we left, it had become nearly a daily occurrence. 

We bonded over our love for family & food. From the beginning, Kim was one of the biggest supporters of our travels. We chatted daily about life in general and our adventures. She always had 3 questions for me: “Where have you been?”, “What have you done interesting?”, and “What kind of good food have you eaten?” Kim lived vicariously through our travels.

The Call

A couple of weeks ago, while we were in Pennsylvania, Philip received a call from another one of his sisters that Kim had passed away suddenly. We were both obviously heartbroken. For the past 20 years, Kim had been like my mother-in-law and one of my best friends all in one person. 

We seriously weighed our options to go home for her memorial. It was going to cost us over $1,200 to haul our home to Georgia and back. Kim was a simple woman, who would not have wanted us to spend that kind of money or to sit around crying about her. Philip and I made the decisions to stay in Pennsylvania. 

Kim LOVED the simple Amish way of life! From the canning of their food to their modest dress, she loved it all. Our last chat the day before she passed away was her telling me that I had to make it to an Amish buffet before we left Pennsylvania and to make sure that I had plans to eat a piece of pie for her. 

The Plan

Since we decided not to go to Georgia, we knew that as a family, we needed to spend our last Saturday in Pennsylvania honoring Kim. Philip and I sat down with Crushed and Tidbit to decide what we would do. It truly was an easy task. We needed to eat at an Amish buffet, have donuts and go on a train ride through the Amish countryside in Lancaster County. 

The Buffet

We choose to eat at Lititz Family Cupboard. The restaurant is located at 12 West Newport Road, Lititz, PA It was delicious and did not disappoint! The pies were delicious too!

The Donuts

When we looked up donuts on the internet, we found a cute little chain called Duck’s Donuts. All of their donuts are vanilla cake donuts and then they add whatever toppings you would like right when you order them. When I told them what we were doing, they gave us a 30% discount. The donuts were delicious and Kim would have loved them. 

• 

• 

The Train Ride

Kim’s husband previously worked in the locomotive shop for a major railroad for many years. We found a cute little local railroad that took us by steam locomotive on a very scenic ride through the Amish countryside. We choose the Strasburg Railroad’s Train to Paradise. Kim would have loved the Amish homesteads and farms along the route.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

During the day, we all had the opportunity to share our favorite memories of Kim. We didn’t shed a single tear that day but instead focused on the good times we had with Kim. As a family, we choose to trade our sorrows of losing Kim, for the joy of the life that she lived. I truly believe that’s the way she would have wanted it. 

Please Like and Share us on social media! Also, subscribe to our email list to stay up to date on new posts! Please leave a comment telling us what you think.