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Deliriously . . .

Outrageously . . .

Sublimely . . .

Happy.

Three absolutely perfect, beautiful, funny, delightful, blonde children.

Florida every winter.

Chautauqua every summer.

 

Other places, too.  (The photo was taken in Arizona.)

The pink tower (Montessori preschool).

Dogs, cats, guinea pig, and birds to come.

 

Really,  I didn't get very far along the road of having a mother.  But I got to be a mother.  The only outcome from early loss that might be termed a blessing:   you don't take much for granted when it comes your way again.  But it's a double-edged sword, because you are always so excruciatingly aware that life turns on a dime.

*****

Last night I spent some time with an elementary school classmate.  We concluded that we have not seen one another in 43 years.  She got married while we were still in high school, became a hairdresser, and lives within a couple of miles of the house in which she grew up.  My life has taken a few more twists and turns.  But we have, each of us, lost a twin son in his twenties.  It took us about a second to agree that a close and loving family was the only  thing each of us had really wanted out of life.