Happier things

One of my daughter's college friends has been here all week, sleeping in my daughter's former room, and doing a jigsaw puzzle with me at the dining room table at random hours of the day. In between she's been hanging out with college friends in the city, then meeting up with my daughter and her friends after work. She graduated last week from Cornell's Hotel School, and is on her way back home to Arizona this morning, having left for the airport before daylight. She was a good friend to my daughter up there in the frozen northlands where they went to college. For three years in a row she came home with my girl at Thanksgiving and rode it out amid our crazy relatives in a jam packed household. She's so easy to have around. My daughter said the same thing, that she's easy to bring into any group of friends, you never have to worry about her connecting and being okay. This morning at 4 AM, when I woke up to hug her goodbye, her Uber waiting downstairs, she said, "Thank you for loving me and taking me in year after year and making me a part of your family. There simply aren't enough ways to say how much it has meant to me. I promise I'll be back before you know it." Her words just melted my heart. As my husband said earlier when our girl asked if her friend could stay with us for a few days on the way back home, "Rachel is welcome in this house any time."