Family matters

 

This was supposed to post last night, but I could not get a WiFi connection all evening—so frustrating.

Same group plus
2014
Kegan front right

Any mother reading this knows how special it is when one of your “away” kids comes to visit, however briefly. I am blessed to live with one of my children, and I wouldn’t for a moment diminish the very special relationship that Jordan and I have. But when one of her siblings is here, it’s a different kind of joy.

Colin David, my oldest, and his family stopped in Fort Worth at lunchtime on their way to Colorado for a week of skiing. Wait! It wasn’t his whole family. Almost fifteen-year-old Kegan was with Colin and Lisa, but Morgan, my sixteen-year-old granddaughter, was on a band ski trip to DisneyWorld. First ski trip one of them has missed in all the many years they’ve been going on this annual spring break trip. Morgan is no doubt excited and not missing the slopes all that much—her boyfriend is also in band, so they are getting the trip together.

Morgan at
DisneyWorld

We were also missing Christian and Jacob. Jacob had to play eighteen holes this weekend—I gather it was coach’s orders—and his tee time was right at lunch time. Christian went to caddy and drive the cart, though I guess since Jacob has a learner’s permit, he could now legally drive it. But he and his dad talk about his game and share other good stuff. It’s a great guys’ outing for them, though we did miss them, and Christian mourned for one particular sandwich he wanted.

My family laughed at me. I ordered a half a tongue sandwich if the tongue was fresh and not frozen. I wasn’t sure but what Lisa would ask me to take my tongue to the next table. The report came back: no tongue. So I had split pea soup. It was, again, part of my program of eating what my family won’t when I am out. Still I took a bit of joking about my menu choices. And about the fact that I forgot my brain and referred to Jordan’s SUV as a van—in my day, it was a van. Jacob would have been mortified if he’d heard that. Even Kegan said quizzically, “Van?”

Colin is almost fifty-three, and he has been eating at Carshon’s Deli in Fort Worth for all the years of his life. We took him there as an infant, and frequent visits, sometimes weekly, followed all the years he lived at home. Now living in Tomball, he does not come to Fort Worth for his mom’s cooking but for a Rebecca sandwich at Carshon’s. I sometimes wonder: If Carshon’s closed, would I ever see him again? He declares the Rebecca (corned beef, turkey, cream cheese, and I’m not sure what else) the best sandwich in the world. Kegan, who has made frequent trips to the deli following his father, usually orders matzoh ball soup, but today he had a Rebecca. “I want to try something different,” he said. But it stymied him, and he left maybe a quarter of the sandwich. Colin scooped it up in a to-go box, and I wonder which one of them ate it on down the road.

It was an exceptionally good visit. Jordan and Lisa were on my right, where my hearing aid has gone out of battery and the new one hasn’t arrived, so I can’t tell for sure what they were talking about. But it had lots to do with calendars. We may all go to Tomball in July, and there is much planning for who will stay with me in August when the Burtons go to Mexico to celebrate Christian’s decade-changing birthday (I won’t say which one, but I bet you can guess). I am self-sufficient alone, but since I can’t drive, it can get lonely, and the kids are good about taking Jordan’s place.

It was a good food day. Jean came for dinner tonight, and I fixed cod with a buttery crumb topping (Ritz crackers make it really buttery) and sauteed cabbage. The family loves the cod, won’t touch the cabbage, so that was another indulgence on my part. Jean and I thought it was delicious. We had a good visit over dinner, bemoaning the state of the world but also catching up on each other’s doings and what’s going on with good friends.

A nice day, with maybe some signs of spring. You think?