Vacation postponed

I made my decision to wander in Maine (starting on September 2nd) before my brother received his bad news just a week ago.

Ever since I heard the news, I've been fighting with myself over my plans. Should I leave the plans as is and potentially need to cancel at the last minute, or need to come home in mid-trip to be with family? Or should I change the dates?

Plans can be changed, vacation dates can be moved, but I need to make that decision now. Why? Because I have B&B reservations, and B&B reservations typically come with a very restrictive cancellation policy. Of the four B&Bs where I have reservations, two have a 14-day cancellation policy, and two have a 10-day cancellation policy. At first I was just going to leave the reservations as is, knowing that if I needed to be with my family during my planned vacation that I would lose my deposits. But as the days creep by, it just feels like my timing is really off. When I compared the cancellation policies and today's date, I realized that if I cancel now I will only lose one deposit.

As the days moved by, the timing of my planned trip started to feel really off. I thought and I thought. I agonized, and I thought some more. What should I do? I finally decided this morning to try to move my trip out further into September. Time for the telephone... I canceled reservations at two of the B&Bs, and I moved the other two. One of those was the reservation where I was already inside of the 14-day cancellation window, but the B&B owner was wonderful and just moved my reservation without charging me for the canceled reservation. How nice! I don't know if that was because I started the conversation by acknowledging that I knew they wouldn't refund my 1-night deposit, or if that's an unstated policy if the reservation is moved as opposed to cancelled. No matter the reason, that made my day! And I was lucky to find four consecutive days available at the B&B in Bar Harbor. I'll be staying in two different rooms, but my original reservation had that quirk as well.

I suppose that given my brother's life situation that my vacation isn't really important. It may be selfish, but it still feels important to me.

My moved Maine trip is still not too far off, starting on September 18th instead of September 2nd.