We didn't want to leave you

Many people (including myself sometimes) thought we were crazy to leave our Redding home for a house in a Del Webb community 200 miles away. We didn't know a soul in the community- which is now about half built-out with 320 homes.

It was scary leaving the community we love so much. It meant moving away from our daughter and my sister. We wanted to stay in the area - honest we did.

We wanted to move into the proposed Del Webb in Tehama County. We wrote letters, we attended planning commission meetings and we spoke about the need in the community for a 'active retirement' community for 'local' people. (The meetings were interesting in that somehow the commission and the speakers kept talking about all the "outsiders" that were going to invade the community). After a couple of years of planning and another couple of years of getting approval from various govermental agencies, lawsuits and negotiations with Cal Trans for I-5 improvements, the development stalled. Last we heard in 2007, Del Webb -Tehama MAY break ground in 2010 - depending on the market. The phase when pigs fly comes to mind.

Not good enough, we needed to move. The house that had served us so well, the one where we raised our children , had family reunions, laughed and cried and provided us with 25 years of memories, suddenly became a burden. We didn't need four bedrooms, we didn't need a pool to maintain and we certainly didn't need stairs to climb.

So, we did it. We moved. We wish we could have stayed, but we may be gone before Del Webb in Tehama is built.