PASSING THE TORCH

Hello!

Very soon I will be sending my last child, Austin, off to college, leaving Brad and I with an empty nest. I do recognize however that when you send a child off to college you can pretty well figure that if you’re lucky they will return during the summer months for a few more years at least. In fact, I was surprised by a comment my son Austin made to me the other night when he proclaimed that he plans to resume his job next summer at the Lake Arrowhead Yacht Club where he has worked for the past two summers as a prep chef. I guess that means we can’t rent out his room, lol, something my husband often jokes about doing.

But when a child gets married it’s a whole different kind of goodbye. There is no more coming home during the summer months. They are pretty well gone for good. And when it’s a son that gets married, as a mom, you are turning over the keys to another woman. I’ll admit, it takes a little getting used to, but I’m so lucky to have 2 wonderful daughter-in-laws that I truly do love like I would a daughter.

So if you’ve been following along lately you will know that I shared a post about our son Adam’s wedding rehearsal dinner in The Hamptons. Adam is my step son and came into my life when he was 7 years old. He has a particularly strong bond with my husband Brad, who was very sentimental about “passing the torch”, so-to-speak, to his bride Alissa. In doing so he made what I thought was a really lovely and sentimental gesture to Alissa, he gave her a “passing the torch” box at their wedding rehearsal dinner.

Brad filled the box with all the things that were special to him and Adam. It contained some rocks from the Dana Point beach where he and Adam used to go and skip rocks. He gave her a selection of their favorite James Bond movies. Watching James Bond was a favorite pastime that he hoped Adam’s new bride would share with her new husband. He also gave her some certificates for Adam’s favorite ice cream, as in Brad’s single parent days they would enjoy ice cream with frozen grapes as a special father son treat.

This was something my husband did all on his own. It’s hard to see your kids grow up, go off to college, eventually marry and live 3,000 miles away. You can only hope that in the 18 years you had to raise them you did the right things to prepare them for the world. And, it can’t help to try and prepare their spouses for them as well.

So there you have it: PASSING THE TORCH

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