I have so much to be thankful for this year, mostly that everyone I love is healthy. Every thanksgiving I always think back to the time when Joey was a baby and we were living in New York City, right by Central Park West where the Macy’s thanksgiving parade started. My parents and my brother and his family all came in to watch it. It was my first holiday season as a mom and I was so overjoyed to experience it with my baby.
Before the parade started, we were watching the Today show and they were talking about who would be the one person they would want at their thanksgiving dinner. My nieces of course blurted out Taylor Swift, I said Oprah and then it was my mom’s turn and I thought for sure she was going to say Bruce Springsteen but her answer is one I will never forget. She said she would want her mom and dad there.
My mom’s parents have been gone for a long time. My grandmother passed in 1995 so over 20 years ago and her father almost as long. She will tell a story about them or laugh at something they did that was funny but she never talks about how much she misses them. Obviously she misses her parents but I guess I thought she didn’t really think about them as much as she does. At a certain point we are all going to lose our parents and just because it is expected and they lived a happy, long life doesn’t mean you still don’t miss them.
I was taken so off guard by her answer that it made me emotional and then she got emotional. The holidays are suppose to be such a joyous time filled with love and happiness that sometimes you forget it can also bring people sadness and make them miss people who are no longer with us.
We all lose people in our life, that is just the circle but this thanksgiving I’m so happy everyone I want to be here is here. I’m happy I had that moment with my mother because it was one I will never forget. It’s funny how when you are young, your wants and experiences are so much different than ones when you’re older. I guess that’s what they mean when they say you’re wiser.
So now that I’m six years older, my answer has changed. I would want all the people who used to be at my thanksgiving table to still be there, for all my grandparents to meet my children and have one holiday with them because I know how much they would have loved them. So this thanksgiving I will just appreciate this one moment in time because that’s all we really have, is this one moment and that’s enough to be thankful for.
My cape was my grandmother’s. I’ve linked some of my favorite capes below.
