Autumn is Awesome

By Bud Focht

Hi, my name is Bud and I really love autumn.

I don’t think I’ve ever said those four words before. In fact, I am sure I have never said ‘I really love autumn’ before.

First of all, who says autumn? The term is fall. Winter, spring, summer and FALL. No one says autumn unless you are auditioning to be a poet laureate and trying to find a word that rhymes with quorum.

A few hundred years ago it wasn’t even called autumn, it was just called ‘harvest.’ But how many of us these days are busy gathering the ripe crops from the field?

I’m not sure why it is now called fall. Maybe it is because that is what the leaves are now doing.

And that is one of the reasons why I now love the fall. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a weird fixation on raking.

But first, why I have never said those four words before. Why I have always HATED autumn. I mean fall.

For the last 38 years fall not only meant the end of summer, my favorite season, but to me it meant seven-day work weeks. I have never been able to enjoy long walks in the cool crisp air, observing the beautiful fall foliage.  I had to work every fallin’ weekend.

Until now. Since I recently gave up my full time job to be a full time caregiver for my wife Terry, who is now in the middle stages of Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, I have grown to not only like the fall but to love it.

Over the last few weeks since my “retirement” Terry and I have gone on several walks through various parks in our area and I have never enjoyed the foliage so much.

And I lived in New England for three years, one of the greatest locations in the nation to observe the beautiful array of autumn colors. But for two of the three years I lived up there I worked every weekend.

My first year in New England, however, my first year out of college, I did have a little more time on my hands.  And since I didn’t know anyone after moving 1,400 miles from Miami to Providence, I used my spare time to see the sites. Sites that are on every tourist’s list of things to see in Southern New England; The Newport, RI mansions and cliff walk, Fenway Park, Club Desire Gentleman’s Club.

Growing up I saw fall’s beauty. I’ve seen it in Thomas Kinkade art where the light through the leaves almost glowed like the paintings were electric. I’ve seen it in Norman Rockwell paintings. I’ve seen autumn beauty in sunflower seeds. (Botanists get that joke, botanists and people who buy sunflower seeds for planting)

But I never really embraced the fall, until now.

With the new found spare time I now have, Terry and I have been out and about, enjoying the fall. And it has been great.

Up until now, the only part of the fall I ever enjoyed was the World Series. And I still do that. But now I am able to appreciate the finer things in life.  

The best part of enjoying the fall is being able to do it with Terry. Someone once said “I will remember some of the great things I’ve enjoyed, but I will remember all of the people I enjoyed them with.”

Terry has been loving our walks. She was always an outdoors person, playing sports her whole life. She has been appreciating the beautiful colors of the trees and the crisp air on our walks. She is having a great fall.

And that is the main reason why I am having a great fall. I mean I really do like the foliage, although I’m not that big on raking. Especially when most of the leaves I rake come from trees that are not in our yard. The other day I saw a guy with a leaf blower, blowing the leaves from his yard, from his tree, into his neighbor’s yard. What’s up with that?  Not cool, man, not cool!

I can’t wait until winter, when I snow blow the snow from my driveway onto his.

Not really. I wouldn’t do that. But I’d like to.

What I also really like to do these days is enjoy the fall. And we really are. Giving candy out to the trick or treaters the other night was fun. More fun than working a soccer game, which I have done in the past on most October 31s.

I will be home to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade and cook a turkey this fall for the first time in a while.  That will be more fun than working a basketball game, like I have done most fourth Thursday’s in November over the last few decades.

Since I retired I have still been working, from home, but they finally found a replacement for me and he will start replacing me in a few days. When I heard he was hired it finally sunk in that my 35+ year career was over. And that stung a little bit.

There was an array of emotions. The fear of poverty hit me first. Then the sudden feeling that it is really over. My career. I started to doubt my decision. A large percentage of what I’ve done since 1981 was over. But then I remembered that I could no longer do it and give Terry the attention she now needs. It wasn’t possible to do both. I HAD to make a choice, and I know I made the right one.

So now I am enjoying the fall, and enjoying being a fulltime caregiver. I am spending 24/7 with my wife, and I love that.

And more importantly, she loves it too.

I grew to love my wife almost 40 years ago. And now I have grown to love the fall.

Until next time, enjoy the fall. Or autumn.

Bud