Nothing I have experienced as a parent has been as rewarding as having the family whole again. It started a number of years ago when MillieJupiter went off to Syracuse University and I cried each time she left and each time she came home. The day of her graduation, we moved her to a friend’s apartment in Pennsylvania. Although that only lasted a few months, I didn’t know that at the time and basically I cried the entire 5 hour trip home. Mrsfabp knew I had to get it out of my system so she left me to my emotions and she napped while I balled like a baby for 250 miles. MJ eventually moved back home and the family was whole again.
(Not me crying but an incredible simulation of past events!)
CollegeBoy started, well, college last year. At each departure in late August I again well up in tears. We keep in touch through phone and text and internet and well, you get it, and it is good but it is not the same as when he is home and we are whole. He brings an energy, an excitement, a laugh, that is very needed and appreciated in our family. It is good that we are whole again. He will be around for 11 weeks, working to earn college money, helping us to ready our house for sale, providing challenges to our ways of thinking. Ah, idyllic youth! We are whole again.
As I move every patiently toward retirement and relocation, I wonder how this will go with “the kids.” How many tears? How much missed laughter? How long until we are whole again? I just read about a study completed in Great Britain that said couple’s relationships improve significantly when “the kids” are gone. I know this is true and look forward to the time when it will be the DW and me. But I still cannot help missing the feeling of us being whole again. I am looking forward too to the time when “the kids” come to NM to visit.
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