Rituals

Today while the weather was nearly perfect, I ordered a sandwich from a place  my family has ordered out from since the children were infants.  I picked it up curbside and drove to meet my daughter up in the very back of a park we have gone to since before we had children.

There I lay out the table cloth we have used for Thanksgiving, Christmas and picnics for over ten years and the plates that are nearly as old, but only used for picnics.

We cut the sandwich in half, added a handful of chips each and opened the drinks we both brought with us. They are the newest addition to these family rituals. I like grapefruit soda water and she likes Viatamin water.

We sat under the same shady shelter that we sat under when I read to them on hot summer afternoons when they were little and she melted my heart because she still loves the "beautiful' Blue Jays the same way she did back then. But we sat six feet apart now. No one was in my lap today.

We spoke of the virus and how some people seem to think it's gone. We spoke of family and shared our most recent pictures with each other. We discussed politics and her fears about the next election.We talked about her job, which is at a small regional airport and the precautions she has to take now, but in between there were her exclamations pointing out these lovely birds that flew all around us.

I am seventy years old. She is my oldest child, nearly 48 years old. 

With a little help from our family she has come a long way, overcoming some pretty major disabilities and she makes me smile. I am proud of who she has become.