First, thank you to all who have written about Ruth. My hope is that her husband aka The Roketman will follow the link back here and read your words and mine and find comfort in them. I am told there was a spinners’ guild meeting yesterday with him present, with tears and funny stories told on his wife.
What I wanted to mention for this morning. Yesterday, my husband and I went off to Costco a little before they closed, and ended up in a slow line well away from the busy central aisle.
Very shortly a young couple with two little girls pulled their cart up behind us: three and a half year old twins, identical as far as I could tell, and absolutely adorable.
The mom looked really frazzled, the dad less so, but clearly it had been a long day; it showed in all of them. As the wife went off to grab one last thing somewhere, my husband looked at the dad, smiled, and said, “I remember the days.”
When your children are little, there’s nothing in the world so comforting as a middle-aged stranger who thinks they’re adorable rather than a pain for being fussy. And when you’re a parent, that is one of the perks of getting to that age. One twin grabbed her sister’s head and pulled it into her lap and rocked back and forth a moment. The other enjoyed the closeness at first, laughing, then decided to assert her individuality and pushed away hard. Normal sibling stuff. She got her daddy to let her out of the cart, and then promptly laid down on the floor, swishing her arms and legs full circle.
“Wrong climate for snow angels,” I laughed, and the dad’s face lit up and he laughed. He mentioned a trip to Tahoe they were looking forward to. The other twin experimented for a few moments with the fact that she now got to take over the leg holes in the upper cart for both sides–it was designed to seat two–and then, when it wasn’t fun to take over her sister’s territory if her sister didn’t notice nor care, asked to be let out too. Whereupon she flopped down on the floor a moment herself, looking the very picture of exhaustion, then leaped up and ran around her twin like a sheepdog herding her. Never letting herself get too far away from her sister. Stay close where it feels safe from the big world.
“I wish I had that much energy when I’m tired.” Again, the dad laughed in response.
Next time Costco exhausts me, I will picture myself on the floor making snow angels. Maybe one of their 25-lb bags of powdered sugar would help.