Memories

My family was on vacation recently. Actually, we were returning from being gone for a couple of weeks. Maybe we were just anxious to get home. Maybe we were feeling a little kamikaze that day. Hard to say which it was, but we decided that we could drive from Williamsburg, Virginia, to St. Louis, Missouri, in one day. That's 850 miles people. Anyway, I digress.

About 700 miles into this little drive, we were all starving and tired and it had started raining, so we were also cold and wet. Hubby saw a billboard for an Amish Buffet, and we all agreed it sounded perfect.

So in we walk, tired, cold and dripping wet. When I say everyone in the restaurant turned to look at us, I'm not kidding. I had the urge to crawl up on the buffet line with a spoon, but I was able to push that desire down for the good of the children.

Once the food started to kick in and I started regaining consciousness, I looked around and commented to Hubby that this place looked kind of familiar. He said, "Well, it should. This is one of the places we ate with Katie and her mom the weekend we met."

Katie and her mom. The weekend that was so long ago. I did remember. We had driven to meet Katie, my birthdaughter, and her mother one weekend. Wanting to be fair to both of us, we picked a place halfway between us, a kind of 'neutral ground', booked a hotel and started driving.

The weekend went well enough. Katie's mom seemed supportive and accepting. Katie herself seemed excited and nervous and everything you would expect from a teen meeting the woman who gave her life for the first time.

That was a long long time ago. It was strange to be somewhere we had been together. Since meeting, I haven't been back to any of the places where we actually share memories. We've been to her hometown once. And we met in this neutral city once. But she has yet to visit us at our home. And I know that day may never come.

It's just strange that the important people in my life whom I share so many memories with will often come to mind as I re-visit places we've been together. Is it strange I didn't immediately remember being there with my birthdaughter? Is that normal? What is normal in this situation? So many questions. So few answers.

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