The author and her husband moved to Victoria, Canada, to be near her family.
Courtesy of Maria Polansky
I've spent most of my life living close to at least some family.My mom was always nearby in my early 20s, when I was living in my hometown of Vancouver, Canada. She'd give me rides and help me with especially heavy groceries when I didn't have a car, and I knew her doors were always open to me if things weren't working out with my roommates.In the second half of that decade, I moved to the UK to be with my then-boyfriend, now my husband. We spent the first year living with his family, and it went a lot better than I expected. They were my first true friends in a new country, helping me get used to the culture, keeping me company while he was working, and taking care of my dog during the day after I got a job. Even when we moved into our own place, we were still never far from relatives.We decided to move back to Canada and live near familySo when my husband and I decided to move back to Canada in 2023, we understandably chose to live in a city with the same kind of family support. My mom, sister, and her family had moved over from the BC mainland to Victoria on nearby Vancouver Island while I was in the UK. We knew that being in the same city as them would make resettling a lot easier, having done it once before.We stayed with my sister's family when we first moved, which meant we had a home to go to when we landed — and it helped us save a lot on temporary rentals we might have had to use otherwise. It also made setting up accounts easier as we had a permanent address to use.Eventually, we found a place of our own near my mom's home, which meant she was also able to offer us support while we were getting settled. That support continued even as we got more used to our new lives on the island, which made the transition back home much easier. It was the first time my family had all lived in the same city in almost a decade (my sister spent a lot of the 2010s living in France), and it was nice that we were all able to be there for each other.Then our dynamic changed again.
