"Chloe, Chloe, Chloooooo-eeeee." They were singing her name in the back seat today as we drove around town running errands. They even argued over her in their pretend-fight kind of way.
"My Chloe!"
"No, my Chloe!"
To them, she's as close as a thought. They can't comprehend (and neither can I, really) that someone so close to their hearts is 5,000 miles away once again.
We hadn't seen our friends in almost two years, but it was like we hadn't skipped a beat when they were here to visit us in Germany. It felt as if we had seen them only yesterday. And one of the coolest parts for me was to see the way our kids clicked. My girls are still so little that I doubt they have real memories of when we lived in Colorado near Chris and Esther, Aidan and Chloe. But they loved our friends like the family they are and were in especial awe over Chloe and her tall, blonde, freckled-princess beauty.
Eowyn and Penny literally pet Chloe and her long golden locks, one section braided and pulled to the side. Their fingers played at the ruffles of her skirt, their wide eyes dancing at the shiny locket around her neck (a locket she wore because it was one I had left with her when we moved, the one that came from my mom's old jewelry box). Eowyn would be parted from Chloe only at bedtime, and broke into heartbreaking sobs and panicked screams anytime she feared Chloe would be taken from her.
It's amazing the impression people can leave on our lives. And as I write this I realize that it should come as no surprise how enamored Eowyn and Penelope still are by the little girl 5 years older and 5.000 miles away. For she is her mother's daughter, and they are their mother's daughters. The connection of souls, the gift of life-long friendship, must transcend generations. How could it not?
And when the morning of goodbye finally came, Eowyn handled it with much more grace than I had expected, considering the intense devotion she'd developed for Chloe. She cried as we waved from the balcony until the car was out of sight, but then she looked into my eyes and asked, "It's just us again?" I was surprised by her sudden contentment with my answer, "that's right baby, it's just us again."
Even so, weeks later she and her sister are still singing Chloe's name, talking about her long blonde hair, wanting to wear braids like hers. Eowyn wants to invite Chloe to her birthday party in January. I told her she probably couldn't make it, but Eowyn replied, "Yes, yes. She will be there in my heart."
My girls are well-adjusted souls; we all are. But the way we cope, adjust, even thrive here in Germany doesn't change--will never change--the way our hearts love and long for all of our friends and family far away.
P.S. Please be sure to check out my friend Esther's blog! In addition to photographing and writing about beauty in the ordinary, she's been posting lots of the great photos she took when they were visiting and some astute and humorous observations of Germany too!
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder