Going Home 2

Hank and I spent the weekend in Iowa with my mom.  I kept saying to my colleagues that I was going home for the weekend.  I must have sounded like an ancient college student but even though the house I remember as a child no longer exists and the house my parents built when I was in high school no longer houses a family member and mom left behind the house in town where my kids went to visit Gramdpa and Grandma for a 55+ apartment about 18 months ago, I went home.

As we walked across the parking lot, we met one of my mom's gang.  This is a group of women who have known each other for a long time and in the past 10 years they all have lost their spouses.  Two of them, their second husbands.  They play games once a week and a group of them goes out for dinner most Saturday nights.  Loneliness seems to be a part of the aging process but they all really appreciate the companionship that their ongoing friendships bring. I got a big hug from Joyce.  "Boy is your mom excited that you are here."

Then we walked past the room in the senior's apartment where there is always a puzzle on the go and my mom's former neighbour was at work.  "Is that Carol!  I need a hug."

It was good to see Mom.  She isn't walking well and experiences pain in her hip but her mind is sharp and she was fun to be with.  We watched the boys basketball team from my old high school win the state championship - again.  Something we never thought would happen when I went to Western Christian High School forty some years ago!  We went to get her new glasses, visited an aunt and uncles and bought some new clothes.  We were her out for dinner group on Saturday night.  It was a good visit and I know she enjoyed it.

I left Hull almost forty years ago but as I walked around the I constantly heard echoes from my past.  A former high school friend was dispensing in the pharmacy and she wondered how I survived the cold winter in Canada.  At church on Sunday, I connected with cousins and friends and friends parents.  It seems that even when you grow up and move on and form a life in another country, you still belong to the soil in Sioux County.  I felt connected.  It felt like home.