TIME ZONES… 
My five week sojourn up north is over, and I’m happy to be back home with fingers on the keyboard. Hopefully, my brain is engaged as well. My visit to family and friends was a change of pace and often a delight, but it was not a vacation in the traditional sense of the word. No hotels. No maids. No wait staff. Here are some excerpts from real life, and you can judge for yourself:
My four-year old grandson and I are playing Uno. I’m down to my last card and call, Uno! He looks at me, twinkle in his eye, grin on his face and says, “Fifteen kisses if you show me the card.” We both know how this goes. I open my arms and relish his slight weight against me, his little boy kisses on my cheek and his high laughter in my ears. He is delicious. I must have put in about twenty hours of Uno.
“Let me help with the dishes,” I say to my daughter-in-law. She waves me away. “I’m fine. I’m fine.” She’s confident, capable and a delight. A wonderful mom to my grandchildren. But she doesn’t need my help–so I spend more time with the kids, and everyone is happy. Including me! I think my d-i-l is very clever 🙂 At the same time, my son is with his dad inspecting the outside of the house. They work together because that’s what fathers and sons do. This young couple, whom I love so much, are following in their parents’ footsteps. Marriage, babies, noise and family. And their doors are wide open to grandparents. Amen.
Happy grandparents with their Florida and New England kiddos. All in one place. Yay!
“The house is quiet,” says my empty-nester cousin who’s my age. My northern friends says the same thing. “The kids visit, but maybe we’ll buy something smaller.” I nod. Empty bedrooms cost money to heat and cool. The houses we lived in have so many stairs…. Hadn’t my golfer guy and I moved to Florida and something smaller? We listen to an update on their children’s doings — college graduations, marriages, new careers– albeit sometimes stalled careers, but new beginnings for the younger generation. And I think…Wait a minute! We’re all experiencing new beginnings, new experiences. The adventure continues for my friends and me as well.
We visit my mother-in-law two or three times a week. She is 95 years old and cannot be left alone. An aide lives with her. The aide is very competent but she’s not family. We settle for competent. Always petite, my mother-in-law is now a shadow of her former self. With little strength, she walks with mincing steps to the bathroom. Then she points at my golfer guy. “That’s my son!” Right. And she knows her daughter. But she needs a lot of coaching to identify her grandchildren and other relatives in photos which are kept handy. Like her vitality, her memory is a thing of the past. Mostly, she recalls her own mother.
My sojourn north lasted a month. I crossed many time zones–sometimes all in one day–while never leaving the east coast.
I’m ready to stay home for awhile.
As always, thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed meeting the authors and learning about the anthology CELEBRATE! in the blog series I posted in August. Looking forward to seeing you next time at Starting Over.
WE HAVE A WINNER! The winner of the August contest is: Sharon! Sharon will be receiving a $25 gift certificate and a boxed set of books. I appreciate every visitor to the blog. Thank you, Sharon, for participating.
NEW CONTEST IN OCTOBER TO CELEBRATE THE RELEASE OF TWO NEW BOOKS. STAY TUNED…
Available October 3rd
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I love how you play Uno
I do, too!
Delightful. Poignant. Glad you had a good time, but, yes, it’s always good to get home.
Deb
We’ll always save a month in the summer for this northern sojourn. The kis fly south for Christmas week, but it’s not enough. Grandpa and I are figuring out how and when to arrange other regular visits. But it’s good to be home, too. Thanks for checking in, Deb.
What a delightful and fulfilling visit. Family is what makes life worth living.
You are so right! Glad you stopped by to visit, Ellie.