I was not feeling certain about a topic I wanted to write about for publication this week. My solution in this situation was to think of something that brought joy to my life recently. This thought was answered immediately by memories of my family and how much I miss them. I am not sure why, but this semester I miss my siblings and my mom so much more than I have in previous semesters. Actually this may have to do with the bonding that took place during quarantine back in the spring. While my sister and I were locked down at my mom’s trying to finish our semester’s course work and my mom worked long hard hours at the hospital, one of our non-work activities was flipping through my mom’s photo albums. We fell into a routine: at 6 my mom would get home from work and immediately take a shower, Ruth and I would close the text books and return the work space back to kitchen space, and one of us would start dinner while the other made cocktails. It was during cocktail hour that we would play bananagrams, watch YouTube, or sift through an album. The albums were the best, but we only had so many so we wanted to savor them. During her 20s (which is the age Ruth and I are now) my mom traveled and worked and, thankfully, took many photos. Her three albums consist of photos from training in the Grand Canyon, teaching in Guatemala, dressing up for historical reenactments in Death Valley, and working in Cape Cod.
