My daughters have grown up and moved away. Sarah lives in central Illinois. Amanda lives near Boston. Rob, the eldest of the three and my only son has been living in central Florida. But soon he intends to relocate to Southern California. Yes, there is a lady involved in that decision.
I met Laia over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Rob had dinner with her parents on Thursday. She met my ex-wife and me on Friday. I like her a lot. She also passes Jina's approval. It's not like Rob actually needed our approval, but it's always a good thing to have family support for a relationship that is growing serious.
And so, with Rob's impending move, it appears this was the Last Thanksgiving. It happens.
Thanksgiving is a holiday about family and food, not necessarily in that order. Also, I think it is more important when you are a kid or when you have kids, grand kids, etc. I remember my Last Thanksgiving with my parents. I knew it was at the time. They were getting ready to move to Florida and I was staying in Texas to finish school. Mom made Cornish hens as opposed to doing a Turkey and having all the leftovers that she believed would end up being thrown out, because neither she nor Dad was especially fond of Turkey, especially when it is cold. There is a reason for the term "cold turkey" being associated with something painful. Although there were other Thanksgivings I shared with my folks in the years after, they were different. At least they felt different.
While I served in the military there were a few Thanksgivings I shared with other service members in the mess hall. Those were fine. I looked forward to them like everyone else with whom I served. But there was also an emptiness about them, an absence of family. No matter how close you are with your friends and how often you may think of military members as an extended family, it never feels the same as being home. But even with those holidays there was a Last Thanksgiving. The following year I had a wife and son and a First Thanksgiving.
As my family grew there were more Firsts, one stands out in my memory. My wife was sick on Thanksgiving. I kept the kids as quiet as possible so that she could sleep in while the four of us actually made our dinner. Nothing was burned. No one was injured or poisoned. Actually, we did a good job of it, all things considered. Also, I think it gave all of us a deep respect for how complicated the preparations for a feast are.
And there was a previous Last Thanksgiving when all of us assembled at Rob's apartment a few years back. Within the next year Rob would be continuing medical school. Amanda was moving away to attend graduate school and Sarah was going to move in with her. We sort of felt that was our last time together as a family, albeit a family already broken as their parents had divorced. My ex and I get long better divorced than we did the last few years of marriage.
That brings us to this year, the son is moving across the country and he'll be marrying soon. There will be other firsts and last, I'm sure. but we have come to another feeling of finality.
There was the usual Turkey dinner, replete with dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, side dishes and such. But there was no pie!
It's funny because after the dinner we all gathered around the cars in the driveway and my ex- demanded we take some pictures - one a mandatory selfie. She held the phone, Laia clicked the button. I'm standing in the background. (See the picture)
When I posted the picture on Pandamoon Publishing's communications platform, one of my fellow authors said that in the picture I looked like the guy who had no pie. Is it that obvious?