Almost Like a Family

Published October 14, 2023

My daughter, Leslie, is here visiting from Virginia. She flew into Phoenix yesterday and rented a car. I had forgotten how nervous a mother feels when she has a child, no matter how old, on the road, especially after dark. I was a nervous wreck until she pulled up outside.

Once inside, after hugs, she opened her suitcase and handed round gifts for each one of us. These were small treats, but thoughtful.

Soon, her brother, Thomas, and she headed out to find something to eat. They returned and sat on the floor. (Ah, youth.) Before the evening ended, we were all laughing and playing a "name that tune" game with Amazon's personal digital assistant, Alexa. Leslie won the rounds with current music, I rocked the 80's round, Thomas rolled through the 60's, and Grandma joined in when we played a classic country round. Thomas said somewhere during the evening, "This is almost like a family."

(October 13th is Chuck's and my anniversary - our 34th this year. We commented on how much Chuck would have loved sitting with us and naming tunes. He would have won all the rounds. And then we figured that he was there with us, laughing and enjoying the time.)

I suppose that we are/were as functional/dysfunctional as most families. I do not recall another time of joining in an evening of games and such comfort. I think age, mine as well as theirs, brought this about.

This morning, Leslie mentioned that a solar eclipse was due to occur within the hour. She and Thomas worked together to make a pinhole viewing box. We took it outside and used it to view the eclipse. Leslie helped Grandma look, and my sister Patricia who had just come to visit checked it out also. Thomas noticed that the shadow on the ground created by the trees was actually showing the eclipse multiplied by the leaves.

Leslie will be here for a little over a week. I'm not sure what else we will find to do, but I look forward to what we will do, almost like a family.