Three years ago next month in June I met a woman from Minnesota on holidays in Ireland with her sister. She stayed at my Airbnb in Cork, Ireland. I began to host on Airbnb as income to subsidize my household in around 2014 when times got hard for me.
We developed a relationship and visited one another every three months. After two years we had many holidays together and we were talking about marraige. We’re both divorced and have children. The plan developed into her moving to Ireland. She has two beautiful teenage girls. I have two boys 9 & 10 who are my world. We wanted to be a family.
After my divorce I thought I could never love again. Samantha taught me how to and was patient, loving and kind with me always. When it came to the crunch of me putting a ring on her finger I became fearful, primarily because of my finances and worrying about whether her girls would settle here. We developed a plan so they could maintain and even improve their relationship with their father who saw them on average 21 days a year sporadically. Samantha and I chatted for 2-3 hours every second day for nearly three years. She had become my best friend, my rock and soulmate bar none.
I broke up with her in March 2020 as my work situation dried up. We had planned to build a home and that dream had become more distant. I was at a very low ebb and my mental health was poor. That has since changed and I now have the job I’ve been chasing for years from my hard work. I’ve designed the house and will be building it next year.
I broke her heart. She was all loving to me and it took a lot for her to open up again.
I am heart broken as I thought I was making a tough decision which would make our lives easier. I acted out of fear.
I’m not sure this story is appropriate for here however I just want to say that without Airbnb I would not have been able to support my family and would never have opened up my heart again. I needed something unfamiliar to furnish me with purpose and esteem. Airbnb and subsequently Samantha were just that.
There are, perhaps, many stories like mine. I’m now lying in bed going through a heart break of my own doing. This is the third time
I’ve hit an emotional rock bottom in nearly thirteen years. I’m 43. The world is going through a lot at the moment. I absorbed that too much which caused me to allow fear to take over my faculties.
The entrepreneurial spirit I gained from being on Airbnb gave me the confidence to stand on my own two feet using the only asset I had, my home.
I’m learning, for myself, that when subdued by fear we need to take a deep breathe and find our focus.
No matter where you are, who you are or what ever your feeling I want to say this; keep on keeping on, open yourself up to the world, open your mind, open your heart. Find your focus.
Bless all who read this and remember love conquers all, best wishes, Tom
