How Did We Go From Empty Nests to Diva Dens? via LaurieJStone
Rock posters are still tacked to walls. Stray CD’s, ancient sports trophies and hand-made clay bowls from elementary school line the shelves. A room once filled with my son’s sweet, solid presence is hushed and still. I look around and realize I’ve also come full circle.
A few days later, feeling better, I was switched to another, cheerier part of the maternity ward. That sunny Saturday, my husband Randy and I were allowed to spend all day with our new son. He lay in his bassinet, wrapped in that pink and blue-striped hospital blanket, so calm and sweet. For the first time, I was allowed to hold him as long as I wanted and even change his diaper. We fed him and cooed, marveling at all his baby perfections.
Twenty-five years later, we watch our oldest boy, now burly and bearded, drive down our driveway in a U-haul truck, his meager possessions in back. I watch and can’t help think of that first Saturday we spent together in the hospital. This day is also a sunny Saturday. But unlike then, which was a beginning, today is an ending. The long, sweet time I lived with my oldest child is over.
Even though I’ve been happy to share our bedroom for 36 years, I’ve never had a ‘room of one’s own’ to quote Virginia Wolfe. Unlike my husband and sons, I’ve had no place in the house I can shut the door and call mine. This is exciting, I think, ideas starting to percolate. I desperately need a guest room, but what else? A desk for writing? A place to do yoga? Or listen to music? Or just veg? A private dance studio?Randy and I start to leave when my eye catches on that Detour sign.
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