Leave town

So three weeks have passed and on Monday we sent our parents on their way. Our time with them was over and it was time to get back to real life and cherish our memories.

I'd be lying if I said it was an easy time having the parental unit here in the valley. My dad has changed little although his driving skills are a tad scary, especially considering he was heading out on the road with my mother to travel across country to Montana for the summer. Somehow, however, they'd made it here from Arizona so I figure that some diety is looking out for them. My mother is frail and decidedly opinionated. Yet as I looked back over the years of my childhood and early adulthood I realized not much had changed. She still saw children as an entity to be seen and not heard, to be strictly obedient and not emotionally needy, to be accepted but not truly nurtured. That kind of hurts to say aloud but time hadn't changed my parents at all.

The siblings on the East Coast spent many hours with our parents, showing them where we work, taking dad fishing at his favorite spots, looking at gardens with mom and eating, my did we eat. Yet as with all good things on Monday the time had come for the last meal together. And so my sister and I went out to purchase the Last Supper and with a weary smile asked that the baker write on their cake .....

LEAVE TOWN.

And they did. The next day.