Click on Laura’s photo by the VW for more pictures from the car show. The show was just down the street from our house and takes place every year around the third week in September. The air was cool, the weather was beautiful, and since it was my parents last day in Ohio, we decided to take a stroll through the car show.

It was neat to see all the old cars, and the VW convertible and Microbus van were my favorites. They reminded me of my first car, a ’74 Super Beetle that was bright yellow and had a sunroof. I loved that car and miss it today.

For small little Groveport, the car show is a good time and a lot of cars show up each year, with more each time than the last. Mostly for me, it was just something fun to do with dad and mom before I had to tell them goodbye.

After the show, we got some blizzards down at the DQ and then it was off to the airport to drop them off. I was really sad to see them go because I hadn’t seen them in a long time. Also, I know I won’t get to see them for a long time, and I know that I have a lot more stressful testing with Cathay to get behind me before we can once again relax together and enjoy one another’s company.

It was so good to reminisce, enjoy meals together, forget about the world’s problems, and just have fun together. Being so far apart is actually getting harder on me as I get older. When I was younger, my thought process was different toward my parents. I never thought about how they are getting older, I’m getting older, time is slipping by, memories need to be made today because we aren’t guaranteed that tomorrow will come. When I was younger, I always thought that there would be time for visits and memories, and time to soak them up as much as possible. As I age, I realize that I don’t want to spend more time away from them by pushing our meetings further and further back. I want to see them as much as I can.

Time sure flies when we get older. It’s this knowledge that made it hard to get any words out at all as I hugged them on the curb at the airport. Words wouldn’t come, only tears. As that familiar pain in the back of my throat came on strong as I fought back my emotions, I tried to keep things together so everyone else on the curb wouldn’t think I was a complete wreck.

It’s so easy and typical for us as people to not appreciate what we have until it is gone. Living away from my parents has helped me to truly love them and appreciate every moment that I have with them. As I’ll soon be over 8,000 miles from them, and Laura too, it makes the training and time in Hong Kong even more bittersweet. But, it sure makes the return even sweeter. I suppose sweeter homecomings and reunions are nice and almost necessary to remind us how much we should truly love one another. I just wish, in my frailty, that I could be with them all the time, but also love and appreciate them like I haven’t seen them in years. I guess I’ll have to wait for Heaven to be able to do that . . .

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