From February 2011. Chris is still above the Arctic Circle in Norway, now with a fiancee, Maria Reithe. So more than a decade longer than he originally thought, and no indication he will return to America for more than a visit. He keeps both passports. We see him every couple of years, plus Facetime.
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When you drop off a son at the international departures terminal, and he's been talking about being based in Norway and Romania for 3-4 years - even though you know this is the son whose plans tend to change more rapidly - you can't help but watch as he goes through the last screening in view and think "Is this the last time I shall ever look at him?"
Perhaps it gets more difficult as it repeats, or maybe I'm just more easily moved to tears as I grow older, but this was harder than sending him off to the Marines, even though statistically, that was far more dangerous.
3 comments:
Paternal separation anxiety?
Yeah, it hurts.
Speaking of sons in far away lands, I meant to ask you last time I saw you both if son #3 was planning to stay out in Alaska. Have heard talk that the friend who invited him out there originally is looking for work in a less remote location.
...and hoping all goes well for #4 and his interesting plans.
"The kids are all home" my mothers friends reported her as saying, the summer that my eldest sister and I relocated from our respective homes in different European countries to new homes in different US states.
That put all of us – including the ones who never left the US – a mere 500 to 700 miles from Mom's house.
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