… that everybody is going to fly over to see you in your new home in Israel.
:-(
Ted’s parents (white shirt, red shirt) should live and be well for many more years. But they are not entirely young and not entirely healthy.
They’re not getting on a plane.
It was wonderful that they came to visit us in Toronto once (twice?), but even that, 5 hours on a train, was a shlep. Twelve hours on a plane – a plane which doesn’t fly direct from Ottawa, where they have lived for their entire married life – well, that isn’t happening.
Sometimes, goodbye is goodbye.
I am definitely getting off easier in this department. My mother is more than a decade younger than Ted’s parents. She travels. She went to Europe on her own; she drives around Ontario, hops onto buses with tour groups. Wonderful!
And I’ve been after my sisters for years that they need to get over to Israel; hopefully, this will be a push in the right direction.
Actually, Ted’s brother beat them – he and my brother-in-law (taking the picture above!) spent a big chunk of time yesterday sharing pictures and memories of their Israel trip 18 years ago. They’ve been there, done that, back when I was still not sure whether I ever wanted to go. Of course, their trip included quite a few Christian sites, as will Ted’s sister’s when she gets over there to see us. I’ll be happy to show her around if I can.
Despite the bittersweetness, they did pull together a very classy send-off, including a completely surprising (cuz his birthday’s in over 2 months!) 50th birthday party for Ted yesterday.
Hard to muster great big happy smiles – but we sure saw plenty of them this weekend.
Very happy that everybody at that end has Skype and is actually figuring out how to use it… hopefully, we’ll keep those beloved faces grinning for many years to come.
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