Our last kid, gone!
We'd had a lot of life recorded and reflected on this blog site since we started it, way back in December of 2010. A lot of big events, and major changes. Lots and lots of seeming trifles too, many quite wonderful in their, even because of their inconsequentiality. Trifles, after all, add up. They come to constitute the tone and texture of a life, a set of relationships. A family.
Caitlin, later joined by Colton, and Lucy, and Howie.
Drew.
(Agnes. Karen.)
Sarah, and Eric, and Luca.
Spencer.
Matt. And, continuing, happily, Alex.
Claire. Also, continuing, happily, Brad.
Milo, for that matter.
And always, at the centre, Sharon ...
Last July Claire turned 18. In late August she moved out of the house. Our last kid, gone!
We knew, we know that this wasn't the end of our family, or really the end of anything. Life, and love, carry on.
Still, what a milestone! What a culmination.
What a good occasion on which to end our family blog.
On the night before her departure, she and Sharon went shopping for some of the things that we'd had an ample supply of, at home. That she'd now need, in her new home.
On the morning of her departure, we filled up the van.
We drove her over, and moved her in. Not a big deal. She's just down the road! As are we, and most everyone else.
Still, suddenly ...
Too much? Too calculatedly melancholy?
Quite possibly!
A few days earlier, Claire had been at the High School, with a few of what we might call the usual suspects. Still recuperating from that collarbone incident! Back on her feet though, and well on her way to wholeness, well on her way to that bright future.
This happened, there:
Ah. More like it.
All those years, all these people, all this scurrying and scrambling. All this happiness, and accomplishment, and love!
Right through the uprights.
That was going to be the last entry in our family blog.
But then the time got away, and months passed, and important events and accomplishments began to accumulate, again. Such that we have decided we'd better do a little epilogue, one more entry in which we catch everyone up, on everybody.
That will be the epilogue, tomorrow. To which we'll add, the next day, a further brief addendum.
Today, though, or tonight, this is still the last entry.
The field-goal film puts it about right.
“Oh, yeah!”
