From The Innkeepers

July 2025 Blog: On Making Space

Sharon received news this week that the closing on her condo in Grand Rapids will take place on September 22. Pat and I have yet to officially be given a closing date, but word on the street is they will try to complete our renovations in September also, possibly even before Sharon’s date. We’ll believe it when it happens. So, in the past few weeks, in between groups, we have been in “purge and pack” mode. Erin and Aaron have been doing much the same thing at their home in Ann Arbor and the report is they have made a lot of progress. Plus, they have the added joy of helping launch Sophie into her first dwelling place outside their family home. She will be moving to an apartment in East Lansing in August where she will be enrolled in the
landscape architecture program at Michigan State.

A lot of new beginnings are happening and swirling around all the lives of those of us involved in this transition of ownership of the Inn. But to allow for new beginnings we have to have closure on what had been our lives for the for all these years.
For Erin it is embracing the memories of a very successful and mostly joyful twenty-five year teaching career in West Bloomfield. Beneath all the well wishes from her students and staff, you could just tell how much they really liked and respected her.
For Aaron it was an exit from Whole Foods that couldn’t happen quickly enough. When Amazon bought Whole Foods the culture changed dramatically from one that was customer and health oriented to one that was mostly oriented to the “bottom line” profitability of the business.
For Ryan it has been a two- year process of transition, waiting for his “teammates” arrival to help him run the Inn. I know that Sharon, Pat, and myself have only been marginally useful in attempting to keep up the levels of service that our guests are accustomed to receiving. He has been doing the lions’ share of the work here in eager anticipation of more capable reinforcements. That time is finally now approaching.

For the three of us who are leaving here, it feels like a “farewell tour” when each group arrives for what will be our last time with them. The generosity of our guests who have become friends over the years has been amazing. I feel like Miguel Cabrera in his final season before retiring from the Detroit Tigers. At every ballpark he went to, or every visiting team that came to Comerica Park, the teams gave him symbolic gifts of his stellar career. The same has been unexpectedly happening to us, and for that we are extremely grateful. Good memories on top of good memories are being heaped upon us.

The other day as I was perusing the Gratefulness.org website, I ran across a quote by Elizabeth Gilbert which pretty well sums up the state of affairs in our lives right now.
“I’m making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises”.
Here’s to making space, even in the face of closures that are difficult.
Here’s to all the unknown surprises that will unfold as we move on.

Marcia, Pat, Sharon, and Ryan
Keepers of the Rustic Gate