I have always been one for keeping it real, so I will do no
less here. Of course with it being our
last day with our son, I wanted things to be special. I envisioned him leaving with nothing but
good memories and thoughts.
The majority of the day was busy. We had to stop by his recruiter’s office so
he could make sure our son had all of his documents in order. Then we drove him to the Military Entrance
Processing Station (MEPS) so he could get processed. Normally you do that the day you get shipped
out but apparently there were so many going the next day that they tried to get
some in early.
After that I had to take my son to the bank so he could
deposit the cash he had in his wallet, a few checks from graduation and get a
roll of quarters. We only had a couple
of hours at home before we were back on the road to get him checked into his
hotel about 25 minutes from our home.
They preferred he be checked in by 3:30. But he didn’t have to be back in his room
until 9 p.m. Checking in took about an
hour because there was some waiting and debriefing. So needless to say, there were a lot of
errands to run.
The plan was to meet family at Chili’s for dinner. It was about 20 minutes before we were
supposed to leave and my 15-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son started
having a stupid argument over a ball.
I guess I should have immediately recognized it was the
looming goodbyes we would be facing. But
I had been up since 3:30 a.m. and was exhausted. Not only that but I had been holding in my
tears all day long.
There were so many moments throughout the day I wanted to
cry. But I didn’t want to do that to my
son.
So my kids are arguing and instead of my husband
intervening, he jokingly told our son to give them the Vulcan neck pinch. That, for whatever reason, was the straw that
broke the camel’s back.
I picked up a dining room chair and slammed it back down,
shouting that everyone was ruining the last few hours we have with our
son. That only resulted in an argument
between my husband and me.
We were going back and forth until I finally picked up my
purse and threw it. I told you I was
going to keep it real.
I stormed off downstairs, slamming doors as hard as I
could. After a few minutes my husband
came to see if I was ready to go meet our family at the restaurant.
That only made me madder.
I guess I felt like he wasn’t recognizing the pain I was going through
and just wanted to move on.
When I came upstairs, my son grabbed me and hugged me close
saying, “Its okay mom.” That was all it
took for the tears to finally break through.
I sobbed in my son’s arms. It was
a release that I needed and there was nothing better than to be consoled by
him.
On our way to the restaurant, I felt disappointed at the way
things had gone. But yet I knew my son
recognized it was only because we were all in pain.
As if it wasn’t bad enough we had the fight and were running
late, there was a miscommunication about which Chili’s we were going to. My family was waiting at another one several
miles away. So we ended up being half an
hour late.
We had a great dinner and then decided that my family saying
goodbye to him in the parking lot of a restaurant wouldn’t cut it. So we drove to my sister’s house and spent
about an hour awkwardly talking.
It is never awkward to be with family but it was last
night. There was the knowing in the air
that this was the last time we would have my son with us.
We did share some great memories and laughter. So it’s not like the entire time was uncomfortable. However, you could tell everyone was trying to avoid what had to happen…saying goodbye.
It was incredibly painful when we stepped outside and
everyone was crying as they hugged my son goodbye. The last images I had as our car backed out
of the driveway and the lights were shining on them is my 17-year-old nephew
(who is my son’s best friend and cousin) holding my mom in his arms and my
14-year-old nephew holding my sister in his arms.
My daughter and son were crying, I was crying. As we drove him to the hotel, we settled
down. But then we arrived and again the
tears flowed. On the way home I kept
thinking to myself how I was going to walk into our house and it would never be
the same again.
Now I face today…the prideful moment of seeing him sworn in
and the painful moment of saying goodbye again, only this time he will be
boarding a plan and leaving us behind.
Photo above by bb_matt in Flickr
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