Away

I miss my girls.

Both are away at college and university. Both are following their passions: one, pursuing her love of games; the other, living her dream of being a musician. I couldn't be happier for either of them.

We keep in touch regularly. I send them text messages, asking how they're doing. I occasionally send them pictures of our cats, as the kids miss them, too. We have FaceTime chats where DW and I find out how they're getting on and whether they need anything. One lives in residence, just down the hall from the cafeteria, for which she has a meal plan, and she tells us what she likes to eat and what she dislikes. The other lives in residence where she has to prepare her own meals with groceries that she has to buy from a grocery store, a couple of kilometres away.

When she's busy with an assignment and forgets to eat, we order food for her and have it delivered. We stay on a chat with her to make sure she knows when the driver is arriving, so that she can go down to the lobby to pick it up. DW will order her breakfast at a Tim Horton's that is across the street. Our daughter just has to walk over to pick it up.

At home, it's a lot quieter in the house than it was over the summer, when both girls were living with DW and me. I miss them when I stop and notice the silence.

When they headed off to their respective institutions, they said that they would not be coming home for Thanksgiving, and a piece of my heart broke. So DW and I made plans to celebrate the upcoming holiday in Toronto. My parents will be joining us, as my younger sister also lives in Toronto and they thought it would be nice to have us gather together for a nice dinner.

I miss my girls, but we'll be together again soon.

Father's Day, 2012.