These Two Women

I had just dropped Kaitlin and Jon off at the Portland airport. It was 10:00 o’clock in the morning. I knew that Pam was still fighting back tears back at the lake. This is always what happens whenever one of them leaves. We had a wonderful week of perfect weather with them and we both feel grateful to have had them here, but when they leave there is always a sadness that lingers for a while. It’s a parent thing, I suppose. On the drive back to the lake I spent part of the time listening to a podcast that Kaitlin had recommended, but the rest of the time I thought about her…and her mother.

These two women have a connection to each other that I suppose only mothers and daughters have. I can’t describe it because I have never experienced it, this mysterious thing between them. Although they are both alike in many ways, they are not carbon copies of each other, a very good thing. But, they understand each other, they get each other. The one on the left made me a man when she married me. Most of the successes I have enjoyed have been because I was trying my best to make her proud of me, trying to live up to the promises I made her in that church in front of all those people all those years ago. The one on the right made me a father, handing me the hardest, most demanding job I’ve ever had before or since. She tried her best to prepare me for what it would be like two years later to become a father to a boy. Although she doesn’t belong to me, or anyone else for that matter, she and her brother remain my most prized possessions. Whenever I have a bad day, I always think about them, and in doing so it reminds me of the things in my life that I have gotten right, the very best I have done.

Now, we have six days of relative quiet until Patrick and Sarah arrive. I will once again make the hour and forty-five minute drive to the Portland airport. I will hope for more good weather. We will cherish every minute we get with them because the return trip to Portland will come way too soon. Lucy will be thrilled to have them all to herself without Frisco along to distract them. We will do anything the kids want to do while they are here. It’s their vacation after all.

But until then it will be the three of us here soaking up the rejuvenating vibe of this magical place…