The Mary Englebreight tear off calendar on my desk reads Thursday, June 12th.....nothing unusual there, except for the fact that it is June 23rd - so late on June 23rd that it is almost June 24th. I won't let my family rip the pages off, because I would really like for it to be Thursday June 12th again....please? (OK - fine...so denial is more than a river in Egypt)
June 12th is the day after June 11th, which is the day that Baby Girl Graduated. From. High. School. It is also the day that we let her in on a secret that we had been holding in for months...10 months to be exact. It took us that long to plan, and save, plan some more....save some more. John came up with the idea last summer. "Let's reward Baby Girl (He doesn't really call her that....I just use that name to protect the mostly innocent!) with something amazing for her graduation. Let's go on a trip - a big trip!" Because you see - School has been really hard for Baby Girl....I mean REALLY hard. And she NEVER. GAVE. UP....and beyond that, she excelled, and graduated with honors. So we planned, and saved, and had family conferences (minus Baby Girl, of course), and told enough other people that it is a blessed miracle that not one person let the cat out of the bag.
So....at lunch, on the big day, just hours before Graduation, we sprung the surprise - with a big wrapped box of seemingly unrelated items. She was required to guess what it might all mean - it didn't take her long to piece it together, and the memory of her reaction will be held close to my heart, until the day that memory serves me no more. At the HineyCrack of dawn the next morning (The aforementioned June 12th), despite my own emergency oral surgery 2 days prior, we were off in our rental van (SO nice - and such a pleasant change from my 10 year old van that has no AC, OR operating drivers side window - me slurping a liquid diet, and swigging antibiotic mouthwash like an old Wino). First stop - Orlando,Universal and Harry Potter World - our dream come true (Yes, fine....we are MAJOR Potterheads). Next, 5 days on the Gulf of Mexico, and then a few more days in St. Augustine - the birthplace of College Boy. What a time we had -All five Kennedys, together again.... hitting the road....living the high life!
As an aside, may I say that in no time in the last year has my 89 pound weight loss been more exciting to me. I got on rides, and never even thought ONCE about whether or not the safety bar would close. I scooted into my place in a tight booth at the Three Broomsticks, like I had been doing it all of my life. I walked for 12 hours straight in the heat - even with plantar fasciitis from too much Zumba...all the while wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt (Who KNEW that the air could feel so amazing on uncovered limbs?) I wore my first ever tankini, I laid on a blanket in the warm sand, and got up, unassisted....more than once. I walked for miles, doing the Sanibel stoop - looking for shells....and actually stooped!
We laughed, and played games....fished and ate....we lined up our beach chairs, and read in the sun and the breeze and the quiet communion of souls that are happy, just to be together. We witnessed rainbows over the ocean, and storms that shook the beautiful old beach house on the Gulf. We retold favorite family stories, and finished each others sentences...and on the last leg of our journey, when we parked in front of the old farm house that John and I bought and restored in the first year of our marriage, I marveled at how quickly time had passed...I breathed a silent prayer of thanks for the Blessings of this life that John and I have made together. (26 years in 2 days!) I remembered how we brought College Boy home to that very house when he was less than 24 hours old.(He will be 21 in less than 2 months.)
We visited with friends that prove the old adage about the quality of friendships that can be picked up as if the years were days.
As we turned the car north, mostly grown children asleep in the back...my mind raced ahead of the Van, and I cataloged those things that were waiting for me at home. College Boy leaving for the summer J.O.B. within hours of our arrival. Vacation Bible School in One. Week. Big College Reunion (Did I mention that the last day features a cookout....at my HOUSE?!) in Two. Weeks. Mission Trips for the Girls. Things to gather and buy for Baby Girls Dorm Room. Things to gather and buy for College Boys first apartment. And then, there is my friend....my beloved friend, several weeks into a Cancer diagnosis. Must check in with him...first thing.
And now, three days since our return, there is today....when the Cancer diagnosis for my friend, took an unhappy turn...a scary turn....a wrenching turn. Which would be why I find myself out of bed, sitting at my desk....staring at the calendar in the deep dark of the night...willing it to be June 12th again...with the Rental Van loaded with five Happy Kennedys, headed South, for the trip of a lifetime...anticipation like warm ButterBeer in our bellies.....10 days of unadulterated bliss stretching out ahead of us...I mean REALLY...the calendar SAYS it is so..........would that it were.
