Notes in the meantime

At work, stealing a moment to check in here. The graduation was lovely, the sun was hot, the graduate stunningly beautiful, a beaming glorious vision, resembling her grandmother at that age. That she brought my mother so vividly to mind was a gift, as if my mom was there with us, looking through her. Her dad and mom and many relatives and her young man traveled across an ocean and drove for hours to watch her walk in her cap and gown, choking up as the speakers struck up "Pomp and Circumstance."

My son was sick with the flu and almost didn't make the graduation, but he showered and dosed himself up with Dayquil and came out for an hour. Afterward we took him back to the hotel and put him to sleep in the plush white bedding, and plied him with liquids and medicines and soup and crackers until the fever broke. We left him watching Myth Busters and feeling headachy and nauseous when we went to dinner in the fancy Tuscan restaurant that was conveniently located within the hotel. Still, that was an improvement from when we first saw him on Saturday, trembling hot and clammy and upchucking periodically, skinny from not eating in days.

My heart seized the way my heart always seizes when one of my babies is sick. This was the sickest he had been since the start of college. Relief flooded me when he said he wanted to come home with us on Monday for a few days because I hadn't yet sorted out how I was going to leave him there, still sick. As it happened, by Monday morning, he was almost back to normal. Today, with no medicine in his system, he is fine. His sister and his cousin knew he was pretty much mended last night when he started teasing and annoying them. It is a deep comfort to have them all home. I will be back to upload pictures from the weekend and the graduation as soon as the work on my desk is moved to the next stage. It piles up quick.