August 26, 2025 HE'S GONE

 

He's gone. Yup--the baby left for college. It's the FIRST time in 31 years that we DON'T have kids at home.  It's troublingly quiet and very neat. Shoes aren't left astray in the kitchen--smelly uniforms no longer stink up the laundry room AND no one is calling from practice begging for dinner. Who would have thought I'd miss these daily rituals-- BUT I DO. Back in the day-I couldn't wait for the kids to grow up and get out so that we could have our lives back BUT the reality is that our KIDS became our life and now that they're gone we will have to reinvent ourselves to some extent. It's all good. No worries. Ali will be home this weekend to celebrate her birthday and SHE WILL leave her shoes in the kitchen and her laundry and her suitcase and coffee mug and the house will be a disaster again. Can't wait! Finished a lovely novel the other day called Small Pleasures by Claire Chambers. The main character of the story is Jean Swinney, a middle aged journalist who lives in London in the 1950's. She has a rather lonely life as she is tasked with taking care of her overdemanding mother when she is not at work. One day while at the office, a woman named Gretchen Tilbury writes a letter to the paper claiming that her 10 year old daughter, Margaret, is the result of a virgin birth. Being the only woman at the paper, Jean is tasked with investigating the matter. As Jean investigates and gets to know the Tilbury family, which also includes Gretchen's husband Howard, she feels drawn to the family and realizes how lonely her life has become. Don't want to say much more than that you will have to read this amazing story for yourself to find out if Gretchen's claim is true and realize that things are not always as they appear. Interestingly enough, this book is based on an actual claim of a woman in the 1950's who said she had a virgin birth which is called a parthenogenesis and other historical events in the book are true. I really enjoyed this book and had trouble putting it down. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.