What Kind of Mother….?
September 2nd, 2009
The opportunity was ripe. I heard Harrison in the kitchen and tiptoed up the stairs to the adjacent dining room. He was humming to himself, and I heard the hiss of an opened Gatorade bottle. A cabinet door creaked and slammed, and the clang of ice cubes rattled in a glass. I could just hear Harrison’s smugness, pleased to be surrounding himself with his favorite delectables. Finally, the crinkling and rip of a bag of chips punctuated the end of his mission.
I pressed my back up against the wall, trying to predict his exit route. I knew he was in the middle of reading a book, which was splayed spine-up on the living room table below. I thought he might walk through the hallway on my left, the most direct path to his destination.He had his treats, and he was in a zone. Sure enough, I heard the pad of his jock-sock footsteps. Read the rest of this entry »
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I walked into my bedroom and looked at the alarm clock- it was 6:50 am. I had just dropped off Olivia at the rendezvous point for her Girl Scout rafting trip. For the first time in six years, it was a Girl Scout outing I would not be joining, the price of being in graduate school where I would spend the day.
“Good news, kids! It’s movie night!!”
A few evenings ago I ducked out of the house to go on a walk. I needed to clear my head, and a hike always does the trick. Not wanting to leave the kids alone for too long (will there ever be a day when I don’t see them as little children?), I opted for one of my favorite routes – a walk through a nearby cemetery.
It almost seems too sacred and private to share in a blog. Yet, I know no other way to express my sadness than to write about it. And knowing that we all connect through our experiences, I believe this eulogy will resonate with people who have suffered the loss of a loved one.
“My friend just sent me this link,” I told Harrison and Olivia. “It’s supposed to be really fun.”
“What we really need is a place to talk about what happens next,” a reader recently suggested at my book signing table.
It is June 16th, and it hardly seems like summer has started. Overcast and cool, time seems to stand still on days like these. The kids love it, as do I.