I don't want to move, part 2

I visited my mother this weekend. She has had both her COVID-19 shots, so I took the risk and stayed overnight. And I talked to her about my situation.

On my side, I found that I could make a good argument for New Boss's point of view. The company's needs have, in fact, changed. There is, in fact, a whole department in another city that does the work I used to do. (For various reasons that wasn't exactly true before.) And the other tasks, the stuff he wants me to work on, really are urgently important to the business. From that perspective, I'm wrong for the job and the job is wrong for me. The only thing that either of us offers the other is immediate availability. But everyone will tell you that it's better to hire the right person than to settle for the person that just happens to be handy right now.

What if I can't find work again … ever? I flat out asked Mother how she would feel if I became a boomerang child at the age of 60, having to come back to live with her because I'm broke? To my surprise, she said that would be fine. She has lived all alone since my father died, and that was over five years ago. She's getting lonely. Also she's not as physically spry as she used to me, and she could probably use the help. She said she wouldn't want to hold me back if I really desperately wanted to move to Sticksville; but if I choose to stay in the area she'd be grateful. She even said it might be OK for me to move in with her even if I did find a job. This was all good to hear. It gives me a safety net.

So I made the table below, to try to collect my thoughts. It doesn't tell me anything I don't already know, but it organizes it all for me. Basically the move to Sticksville is good (green type) from the perspective of staying employed in the immediate future (with no guarantees about the long term) and bad (red type) in every other respect. Staying here -- rejecting the move -- is bad from the perspective of staying employed in the immediate future, and either good or unpredictable (black type) in every other respect. Rejecting the move has way more unknowns involved, but it also has more upside. Making the move is more predictable (at least in the short run) but I don't like what I see.

When people give advice about this sort of thing they always say, Take the risk! Don't settle for something you know you're going to hate just because it is a known quantity. And in fact even if I were to move to Sticksville, I can't guarantee that I'd still have a job 12 months from now. Or 24 months from now. (There are threats to the business that make it look pretty risky right now. Who knows what will happen?) And if I were unceremoniously dumped out of work, now I'd be on the other side of the country in a place I didn't like with no family nearby. Not an encouraging prospect.

I think I want to stay. Scratch that -- I know I want to stay. I think I'm going to choose to stay. I just wish I knew how to swing the income side of the equation.

Move to Sticksville	Don’t move to Sticksville
Income:
Employment guaranteed. No guarantee for how long.	Unemployed. Have to look for new work. No guarantee that I’ll find work, because of age.
Chance the whole business unit might fold in two years.	Not relevant.
Still able to pay Wife’s alimony and provide her medical insurance.	Unable to pay alimony unless/until new job. No guarantee I can afford COBRA for her.
Kind of work:
Work doesn’t match my strengths. Potentially set up to fail.	Who knows what I’ll find? Maybe something great, maybe something terrible, maybe nothing.
Don’t trust my boss.	If I don’t trust the person who offers me a job, I don’t have to take it. But I might not have much choice.
Location:
Don’t like the town.	Like my town. Like my mother’s town.
Don’t like the plant.	Who knows what I’ll find?
Far from family.	Near to family.
Mother is getting old.	Able to live with or near Mother if needed.