If you had to, could you abandon your present life to step into an uncertain future?

I realize it’s a bit foolish for me to talk about stepping into an uncertain future because no one’s future is certain.

But we all do have our own routine and expectations as we go about life as we know it.

When a call comes out of the blue, or illness requires radical changes, we may be forced to quickly abandon all that is familiar.

That’s what happened when my good friend Chris got a call from his mother who lives across the country from him.

She said three words that had him packing.

She said, “I need you.”

She didn’t mean she wanted Chris to come for a visit. She asked him to take early retirement and come help her and her bedridden husband.

“Mom has always been an independent person who has spent her life taking care of others. She never asks anything for herself so I know she wouldn’t ask for help unless it was absolutely necessary,” Chris said.

His mother, Kay, is my close friend for the past decade so I know Chris is right. His mother wouldn’t ask for help unless she had no choice.

Kay and Chris have a loving mother-son relationship and have always been there for each other. Chris wasn’t about to let her down now.

In two weeks’ time, he quit his job, gave away his boat and found a new home for some of his big possessions. He has no idea if or when he will be back in his home.

“Nothing is certain except I’ll be there to help my mom, he said. He admits all that uncertainty is adding to his concerns.

I tell you all this for one reason. Many of us get hit with the unexpected. Sometimes it means a drastic change as we step into an uncertain future.

What I’ve learned is this: When we close one door we open another. New opportunities we never anticipated can come with the change.

When I decided to make the drastic change of moving from Pennsylvania to Florida, some thought it was foolish to move to a place where I knew absolutely no one. It was hard to leave behind my friends and the support system I had built up over the years.

But there comes a time when we know we need to make the change.

Having the courage to close one door impacted my life in so many fabulous ways. I found I could live the outdoor life I always craved. When I joined two kayak clubs I found a great circle of like-minded new friends. I was never sorry I made the move.

Coincidentally, Chris’ mother, Kay, was my first friend. When I bought the sweet little home she was selling, I didn’t know it came with the wonderful benefits of Kay and her son. We have been so close through the years.

One of the things I loved best about Kay was her positive attitude and her appreciation of every single thing in life.

When she got hit with cancer she didn’t think about dying. Nor did she waste the present by worrying about her future.

Instead, she focused on living. She bought the boat she always wanted and lived life to the fullest.

She’s had such a wonderful life because she was never afraid of what would happen when one door closed. Nor was she afraid to take risks.

I have to tell you her sweet love story. When she was about 75 she had a surprise phone call from her high school sweetheart who wanted to take her to their class reunion. From the time they went to the reunion they were like two happy teenagers.

When Walt asked her to come to Nashville to live with him, she wasn’t afraid to make that leap.

If there is one word that best describes her life with Walt, that word is joyful.

For the past seven years she’s been his constant companion through the joys and jolts of life.

One big jolt has been illness. Kay never complains so we didn’t know how bad it was until she called her son for help.

They say we teach more by example than we do by words. By example Kay taught her son not to be afraid of change.

At 61, by moving across the country he will now be experiencing many changes, both good and bad, I’m sure.

Never one to embrace change, he nonetheless didn’t hesitate to move in order to be there for his mother. “She’s always been there for me all my life,” he says.

He’s learned from his mother not to be afraid of the unknown. She showed him that change can bring unexpected gifts, sweetening life in ways we never expected.

It’s a good thing for all of us to remember.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.