With anywhere up to 40,000 Brits emigrating to Spain annually from the UK, plenty of UK citizens prefer a life in the sunshine. 78-year-old May*, based in Cambridgeshire, is one of them. The retired receptionist is planning a new life in Spain after losing her husband of 50 years, Les, in 2023.
But as a grandparent, it hasn’t been easy to step away from family life. She shares how things have taken a turn for the worse after she shared her news with her three children and four grandchildren.
It’d be nice if they could find a little bit of happiness for me after everything I’ve done over the last 50 years. My eldest daughter is 50, my middle son is 48 and my youngest son is 45. I’ve spent my whole adult life pretty much raising them and being there for them and their children, and yet when I told them my plans to move to Spain they said I was being selfish.
Shorts
I wanted to tell them all together, so I got them over for a barbecue last month. But not a single one of them thought my move was a good idea. Chloe*, my daughter, said, “You can’t do that, what about us?” and my son, Eddie*, who has his own children and lives in Cornwall asked where they’d all stay when they came up to visit, before telling me if I went ahead with the “daft” idea I simply had to buy somewhere big enough for them all to come and stay in Spain.
