I was moved by this post by Calla Lillie. Hepcat and I are a bi-coastal family (he: Northern California. Me: Manhattan) and I can relate to much of what she has to say. She is embarking on marriage and that, alas, is also something I did 17 years ago.
It’s weird and new to find that I have two families now, one on each
coast. I find it gratifying and fascinating to watch my Almost Husband
interact with his family—it gives me glimmers of what he must have been
like as a child, insights into pieces of him that I would never know or
understand without the context.It must be incredibly difficult to have a child living on the other
side of the country—even more so when he has fallen in love and begun
to lay down more permanent roots so far away. To me, that makes it all
the more important that we visit as much as we can, to learn about and
from one another as the concept of family grows and expands. And
expand, indeed!Here’s to
families and coasts and the things that connect us—growing and changing
as time hurtles forward—transforming us daily, ever so slightly, into
who we are.