MAY 9, THURSDAY

FAMILY

For three days in a row I have been with family. My son Tom‘s wife, Kathy, grew up about two hours away in Maryville, Tennessee, the home of Maryville College where both Tom and Kathy spent their college years. On Wednesday Kathy‘s mother, Beth, and her husband, Richard, came for a three day Mother‘s Day visit. They went home on Saturday to be able to celebrate on Sunday, actual Mother‘s Day, with Kathy‘s two sisters and their families in Maryville. Mother‘s Day may have been dreamed up and advertised for commercial reasons, but it still has deep meaning for many people and did for us during these three days. Wednesday and Thursday night we had dinner together but on Friday we had a celebratory cocktail party with drinks and a wide choice of finger foods. Laura, an old friend of Tom and Kathy, who used to live on Melrose Avenue next to them was there with her 85 year old mother, who lives in Givens estate, a retirement home in South Asheville. It was a bittersweet time because Laura‘s daughter, Eliza, 21, electric with life, died just a year ago of sudden brain cancer. Laura, Laura‘s mother, Kathy and her mother were all being celebrated as mothers. Kathe, my wife and Tom‘s mother, who died three years ago at this time was celebrated also. Susie and Todd were there and we were joined by Sue and Tim, old friends from Melrose Avenue.

The celebration took place in Tom and Kathy‘s new house, almost a house warming party. We sat outside on their wide screened in porch with comfortable furniture and then when the wind blew up and it got chilly we moved into their large living room. Tom and Kathy moved almost six months ago but were living in the middle of renovations since then, which are finally almost completely done. They are proud of their new house and we are proud with them. It is a beautiful house on a very quiet road looking out on a backyard full of exotic trees and beyond that a wide golf course. We talked and talked and just enjoyed being together as family and close friends. It was a homecoming party for me as well. I was home again.