Feb. 27, 2004 - 19:01 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

A Loved One's Return

Today is the day that I picked Heather up at the airport. While she was gone whe went down Florida's east coast, stopped in to visit with Jeanniie (daisyok) on her way to the Keys, up to the Everglades, had a thrilling ride on an airboat there and had dinner with a lady and her daughter who were our neighbors when we lived in Tampa.

When she goes, I worry. When she stays I get upset because she should go while she is able. But she doesn't want to go if I can't.

Sixty years and eight months is habit forming and addictive I know, it is to me too. Even though Heather is in one room and I in another, each of us doing something different, we are together -- at home.

But in recent years things have changed. First was our car accident and my recovery, then when COPD made its appearance in me then my need for oxygen made a trip even to our hills dicey. Eight plus hours brings us home a bit earlier than we want to come back. We used to go and see ahead of us nothing but miles and miles, claustrophobic westerners are we. Yet, old habits die hard. We have been together through things that happen to married folks and parents, usually we were able to be away from home together.

Just because my condition precludes travel like Heather just had, it shouldn't call for her to stay home when there is no reason that she should.

She worries about me when she is gone, I worry about her when she is gone -- we worry about each other when we are together. We are old and getting older, sometimes makes me wonder if we will see each other in the morning here at home.

We have had so many happy years together and I treasure what we have left, every second. But I want her to be happy in spite of me. This trip with her brother returned her almost a new woman. She had super fun without having to worry about me keeping up.

We will go together to Eugene, Oregon around Easter time. Daughter looked at calendar and saw that Easter was on my birthday this year. So she and her husband are contributing Frequent Flier miles so that Heather and I can come for a couple of weeks around that time. And some people think that kids are a nuisance - heh - not mine.

This trip I can make at the level of oxygen I use now. Apria supplies my needs while I am there just like they do here. Daughter will meet us at airport with the oxygen equipment (bottle, regulator and the necessaries) So if I don't exert myself, nap on the plane, I can handle it. There will be a concentrator there in her house too to use around there. And we will be with beloved kids and grandkids.

I am proud to say that our son-in-law is one of the family - just as if he were born to us - 'course then he couldn't marry daughter, but you know what I mean.

It was only a week, and it is over, with something for us to look forward to soon. But today was A Loved One's Return . . . . . . . . . .

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