Wednesday, August 26, 2009

What is Home?

Here we are, taking an extra week of vacation in our former home of Port Angeles, Washington. Wolf and I moved to the Olympic Peninsula in Februrary 1999, settling first in Sequim, then moving to "PA" in the winter of 2001. It is, for all intents and purposes, Home.

Wolf loves Port Angeles. It is where his first and best friend lives, where we met Yukon, and where he has felt most at peace. He and I made the move from Seattle when he was Bear's age, and he began school not far from the assisted living facility I managed.

It is strange bringing our younger son back here at the same age Wolf was when we made the cross-sound journey to a new and certainly better lifestyle. I see kids that were in kindergarten with Wolf now playing football, making college plans, and finishing up summer jobs. We've driven past our old house and Wolf's former elementary school, and I wonder how things might have played out had we stayed. I listen to the incredibly compassionate support from our friends and lament that Wolf is not here to feel their empathy for our family's journey.

Yukon and I are making tentative investigations into the possibiity of Wolf's return to Port Angeles for college, and our potential retirement here. It would be a nice step for him to be back where he is comfortable and secure with the circle of support of friends who could assist where necessary.

It is nice to think about, this coming Home. When talking to Wolf on the phone, I asked him where "Home" was. He told me Port Angeles. It would be nice to give that to him.

1 comment:

dorothy said...

What fun that it still has a 'home' feeling and that it is a place you love also. Maybe we should all go back....there is no place like home.