I agree with you totally. The reasons you move abroad to begin with, may not be the reasons to keep you there in years to come. As you say if you lose your partner, unless you have a good network of friends in your new country (and even then they do not replace family) then you may be able to stay but even if you get accustomed to life in your adopted country, there is always the pull of your roots in later years to consider. My daughter and her partner want to move to Spain also, so if she does this may also affect my decision to stay in Spain. It is one less reason to want to keep coming back I guess, but with your children round you it is much easier to settle.
My daughter thinks we should just sell up and go, otherwise we are not giving ourselves a true chance of settling. Oh the impetuousness of the young
I told her you have to keep your escape route just in case
