Yesterday my dad picked me up from the airport in Chicago – a last-minute stroke of fortune that his schedule worked out – and we drove North to Wisconsin. My brother gets married tomorrow and we headed to my home town of New Glarus, a small Swiss tourist town (population ~2000) that I haven’t been through in nearly four years.
On the way, though, my dad had the idea to swing by my grandparents home in Stoughton to surprise them. And surprise them we did. Pulling up to their driveway – to their house on the corner Main Street they’ve lived in for sixty years – my grandpa (who I call Bumpa) was on the deck doing housework. We hugged and then went into the front door to surprise my grandma (Nana) who was in her chair in the living room.
“Hey, Nana,” I said and she gave a little jump and a cry of joy and got up to give me a big hug. It went on and on, her surprise, bringing tears to her eyes and filling up my heart. It is so good to be home. It is so good to be with family. It is so good to hug my grandparents, who I see only twice a year, over and over and sit in their living room to chat. I’ll see them again today at the rehearsal dinner and tomorrow at the wedding along with most of my extended family.
When I was younger I didn’t understand it. I wanted to leave home and get away, and I did. But more and more I feel a longing to be back with family. To be in the arms of my grandmother. To go to movies with my brother. To watch HGTV with my parents.
All those little things that make my life so full of love.
With Love,
Natalie