Welcome back to the Fearless Innovator Podcast, my name is Mechiel Kopaska, and I am your host.
Three years ago, I received a phone call from my mom. She was living in her winter home of Mesa; AZ and she was ready to go home back to Iowa. The urgency in her voice was fierce and determined. I told her no problem mom, let me get some things taken care of at my house in Tampa and I’d be on the next flight.
Just as a side note, I had only been home a week since my last 2 week visit with my mom in Mesa, AZ but that didn’t matter to me. What mattered to me the most was making my mom happy and because of her recent mental decline, I dropped everything and made it happen.
I called my sister Melissa in Arkansas, and she was all in!
Within one week, we were both on planes headed to Mesa, AZ. When we arrived, we rented a large vehicle for the 3 of us as it was also our plan to convince my mom that she should take her personal belongings back home with her. Luckily, she agreed, and we packed the vehicle for the long journey home back to Iowa.
It was our plan to take our time, stay in short term rentals and make this a documented journey for my mom.
Our first overnight stop was a small, a very small town in NM. It was so small the streets were made of dirt, but the house advertised seemed to be quaint with a lot of character when I booked it. However, upon arrival my mom noticed these weird devilish figurines throughout the house. She said they gave her the heebee jeebees. I told her, let’s leave a light on and if you hear anything at night, holler at me, because I’ve got my gun. I must admit they were a bit scary, but we managed to settle in, and mom stayed with Melissa, and I went to a back room. The next day we ventured off for Roswell, NM. Several years prior mom and dad had visited Roswell and they were both intrigued by the aliens. After several hours, we were off to Amarillo, TX for our next stay. This guest house was in the backyard of the host. It was a beautiful 2 story house decorated with old cars. Our stay was uneventful, but we did enjoy the food in TX!
When we were planning our trip, mom had spoken up and said that she’d like to go see the Tin Man. We had no idea what she was talking about, so we googled it and yes, she was right! The Wizard of Oz Museum was in Liberal, KS, along with Dorothy’s house and statues of all the characters from the movie. Mom said she had driven by the exit so many times but wasn’t able to stop, so we said YES, we will go see the Tin Man. We stayed for a couple of hours and captured our pictures and back on the road we went, destined for Hastings, KS where we found a hunt camp. This short-term rental was in town but mainly hunters came here. We made friends with our hosts, and they told us of the restaurants in the area and then we went to bed early so we could good sleep for our next adventure.
As much as mom would get the heebee jeebees about weird places, she was still intrigued by them, so we had planned to go to the Villisca Axe Murders house in Villisca IA, but discovered it was closed for the season. We said no biggie, we will now go to Council Bluffs gambling. Mom loved to gamble – BUT let me set the story straight, she would only spend $100.00 and then it was game over! But I swear I’ve never seen two people (my mom and dad) that were ever so lucky! She or dad would always win. This day didn’t yield anything but laughter and fun! After about 2 hours we were on the road to home. We only had 1.5 hours to go, and we safely got mom back home to where she wanted to be. She was thankful to be home.
You’re probably thinking to yourself, what does this story have to do with real estate or being Fearless? Right? – well technically nothing but in the spirit of Thanksgiving I wanted to share with you a story of living life without regrets, enjoying the journey and helping others.
There’s one more piece to this story – It was on our way to Liberal, KS from Amarillo, TX that we pulled off for gas. At this gas station we discovered these little rocks. The rocks all had a saying on them. We decided we’d each pick one and then share a little story about that rock meant to us.
Mom chose “Joy” – She said it made her happy that we both could come and get her and take her home.
Reluctantly, Melissa chose “Forgiveness”. I say reluctantly because deep down Melissa knew there was someone in her life she needed to forgive, and she did. Mom and I both knew who she was talking about, but we didn’t say anything.
I chose Grateful. I was grateful that God had given us the opportunity to take the time to spend with our mom on this journey.
If there is one thing, I’m guilty of, it’s making sure I spent time with my mom and dad and other family members. I will never regret not doing something with them because I make sure it happens.
If this time of year is difficult for you, I’ve always found that helping others no matter how big or small is the best thing to boost you right back up! It could be as simple as just talking with someone who needed someone to listen to them or helping at a food pantry.
We only die once, and this is our time to be un-self-absorbed (if that’s a word) be kind and help others.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I am looking to interview others that may have a compelling story to share about your journey into real estate investing. If you’re interested reach out to me at www.fearlessinnovator.com.
Thank you for listening, I hope you were inspired, entertained or you learned something new!
Catch me later…
