Pandemic won’t stop my parents from finding ‘their happy-ever-after’ in Florida

Nicole Bozkurt
Groton, Massachusetts
2 p.m. Wednesday, March 25


Pandemic won’t stop my parents from finding ‘their happy-ever-after’ in Florida

While the world is undergoing a catastrophic pandemic, my parents, Dawn and Levent Bozkurt, are selling their Groton, Massachusetts, home and moving to Florida.

If only they had known what they had gotten themselves into when they put the house on the market last August.

They built the house 22 years ago, right after the birth of their first child and my older sister, Briana. Three years later, I was born, and a couple of years after that, my parents completed the family with a dog.

After Briana and I graduated from high school, my parents retired and began their journey of what they like to call their “happily ever after” on the Florida coast.

My parents, Dawn and Levent Bozkurt, are packing the U-Haul and moving to Florida.

“Have you ever washed your hands 50 times a day?” my father asked. “My hands feel like sandpaper.”

The couple hopes to leave soon, worried that Massachusetts may decide to issue a shelter-in-place policy. At the susceptible ages 58 and 65, my parents also fear air travel and agreed to rent a U-Haul and share the 24 hour drive to Sarasota, Florida.

“It is a very stressful time because there are obstacles every step of the way,” said my mother, who also has a broken arm.

Hotels across the East Coast are closed, forcing my parents to take the drive in one straight shot.

“I am a one-armed bandit,” my mother said. “I don’t even know if I’ll be able to drive a U-Haul.

If there are not any more obstacles, they hope to leave within the next couple of days.

“I will finally breathe once we get there,” my mother said. “I know it will all be worth it.”


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