I have been silent on the subject of children away from home because,
frankly, I've been worried. My son is a cricket coach and one of his best
'jobs' is instructing poor kids in Bali (part of Cricket Australia's
program - he works for the WACA). He is not a 'boy' anymore at 25 but he
will always be my boy. And with the violence and the terrorism and the
strange laws of Indonesia (and their application), I do worry when he goes
up there. He has just returned from a week away ten minutes outside
Denpassar ... and I am very thankful.
He did have sad news: two of the boys be normally sees were swept away in
the tsunami, so he was very sad.
... but, today, he will be out on a green field in Scarborough, leading his
team out to do battle ... Where do they get this ceaseless energy? Certainly
not from me :-)
I wrote a poem when my daughter left home and my ex-wife was quite lost.
I'll try to find it and post it. When my son left home (and my marriage had
broken up, so it was just he and I finally at home), I suffered months of
'empty nest syndrome', a very real feeling I can assure anyone who hasn't
been through it.
Now, where's that bloody poem ...
Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: "jennifer harrison" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 5:54 AM
Subject: Re: In the well established tradition of the late Snap!
> >
> > I have decided that after the period of eighteen years of constantly
> caring
> > for your children and being on hand, comes the endless period of being
> > constantly anxious about them!
> >
> >That's definitely true for me. My 22 year old daughter moved out this
week
> across town and it was amazing how we negotiated the emotions of the
leaving
> through a flurry of discussion about 'things' - 'things' she might need,
> etc. When she finally left we both cried, too, as in your lovely poem.
That
> day the temperature plummeted and in the evening, as we were having
dinner,
> there was a knock at the door and it was Jessie home for dinner! We both
> laughed. Since, she has been in and out quite often, which is great. It's
> different when they go far away, to another country.
>
> Jennifer Harrison, Melbourne
>
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