I d
on’t know why I didn’t see it coming. I never even imagined such a thing happening. It never crossed my mind that when my three children grew up, they’d move far from home.
Okay moms…didn’t you pour your lives into your kids? Yep. That’s what I thought. Some of us have very strong nurturing instincts. We nest, a lot. It starts when they are close to our hearts in our wombs and it continues forever, I think.
So, imagine what it would be like to have two of your three children move far from home within weeks of each other. That’s exactly what happened in my life, and let’s just say it was ugly. My mascara ran everywhere. Son number one followed the girl of his dreams over a thousand miles north of home to Idaho.
And shortly after, son number two was hired by a company in Texas. The morning he left, as he pulled out of our driveway, he hollered through his open car window, “Mom, I’ll be home in six months. Promise.” I was crying. He was consoling. Then he met a darling girl with deep Texan roots and a sweet southern drawl. Fourteen months later they married and now they have a baby boy.
It never entered my thoughts that someday the children I had poured my life and soul into would leave home. Last year, my daughter graduated from high school and moved to college in another state, 300 miles away.
I used to dream of the day when my children would have their own families, and I imagined them living in the town where they were raised, and it crossed my mind back then that I would someday have grandchildren, and I’d be the sort of grandma who kept cookies in the cookie jar for their frequent visits. Well, now that I’m officially a grandma, I think I’ll be the kind who carries cookies in her suit case. Texas here I come.
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