I put my parents on the plane this week. Which, I’m sure they will understand, was both very difficult and a relief. Blue helped at the airport by running around madly to distract me when needed, and waving enormously when it was time to say goodbye. He also gave good squeezing hugs on the train ride home.
We had a super holiday together – or almost holiday. They came to visit us for two weeks and more-or-less fit into our daily life. Though daily life with an increased ration of day trips and coffee shop excursions. As well as Canterbury Cathedral, we went to Greenwich by boat, the Borough Market by bus, and the top of Hampstead Heath hiking. We also did all the ordinary things like grocery shopping and church on Sunday. We sat down together for meals. We did the bus run to collect Beangirl at the end of a school day and we listened together as she told us all the stories that needed telling. (English school kids are still in school. In July. I know. Blerg.)
I think I needed that time with my parents. It was so good to be able to share life togeher again. I’m used to living in the same city as them – or more to the point, I’m used to parenting in the same city as them. I really have no idea how previous generations of emigrants did it – just leaving the old shores behind and leaving the last generation behind. That would have to be a solid goodbye. Which isn’t really required now, or at least not for us. The pond may be wide, but, with some looking and some luck, reasonable airfares can be found. Thanks be for modern technology. And for grandparents willing and able to travel. (We’ve got the next set coming over in August – just in time to help out with the packing for our move north…)
I had another moment of that kind of thanksgiving this week. I was chatting on Skype with my sister and her two girls. I had seen her name pop up and wondered aloud as to why she was online at that time of day. The Spouse reminded me that, in Canada, it’s summer. Oh. Like with no school. So kids are home all day, and school-teaching sisters available for chats. Or, perhaps more accurately, available to balance kids on knees while the cousins made wild faces at each other. As cousins do. But then Beangirl slipped down from my lap with an “I-have-an-idea-and-it’s-dreadfully-important- Mother” look on her face. So my sister and I chatted some more – summer cottage plans, just how hot Ontario is right now, birthday tea parties on the horizon. Then back came Beangirl with paper and crayons. She had, she informed us, been making a camera. Lots of purple, buttons drawn on. She held it up for her cousin to see. And CLICK! she said, and she slid off my knee again. She popped back a moment later and held up the back of the camera for us to see again. Now, on the back, she had drawn a viewfinder and a picture of her auntie and cousin. So Ontario cousin has to find paper and do that same. Then they carefully spelled out each others’ names and marked their cameras appropriately. I love it – transatlantic arts and crafts.
Take that, enormous ocean.
