a mother never retires...

Been a busy summer...seems I've been wearing the mother/grandmother hat more than I ever did when the kids were young.  Don't let anyone tell you that your job is done when they grow up...no way.  You just have to listen more, you still get to hug them, kiss them, throw in a few "it'll be ok" but dang it you gotta suck it up and let them go...

I got a call this past Wednesday while I was sitting on my friend's bus during a field trip, my boy's step mom called telling me my boy's grandfather had passed.  My ex's father had been ill a long time and everybody knew it was just a matter of time.  She had told Eric, my 23 year old soon, who had just recently been transferred to Ohio that grandpa was gone. This is the same kid who has been working 92 hour weeks (is there even 90 hours in a week??!!) opening a new Menard's store.  She told me he was silent, she was worried about him, she said, "Rose you call him, you have a way with him". God I hope so he's my kid!  I was a bit worried too, only because my son Eric is a "stuffer", he loves to go merrily along in life doing his thing, working, playing, living life and shoving the unpleasant things down, not dealing with them until the inevitable explosion.  I called, he sobbed and we talked.  I told him how proud I was of him, how hard it was to do what he was doing, being away, working unGodly hours, and how grandpa who himself was not a showy person would want him to stay put.  Grandpa was not having a service. 

Mark and I drove the 5 hours to see him Friday morning.  The kid needed us.  We spent the night,  he worked until 8 even though the store closed (the 4th of July holiday) at 6.  We went out, we met some new friends of his, we saw fireworks.  Today we had breakfast and he wentback to work, to work another 12 hour day.   I know tonight he will go out with some of his new friends, probably drink too many beers, and tomorrow he'll get up and do it again.

I worry about all my children, some days more than others.  I remember how I was when I was 23, 26 or even 32 like my oldest stepson Jeremy.  I think of how everything I went through in life made me who I am today.  I would never cheat any of my children the experience of living their life's by trying to tell them what to do, but I sure can be there to hug them, kiss them and tell them that everything is going to ok.  Oh yeah trust God that He has an eye on them too.  After all, we mom's can't be everywhere, right?

Menard's, Celina, Ohio

 

 

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