Chateau de Chateau- Castle of Castles, has been the name for my parent’s home ever since I got married two years ago. It’s been the place where I come back to be a daughter again, to laugh with my sister and get hugs from my parents and wake up late in the afternoon to find two different cakes in the refrigerator, both of which make an excellent breakfast.
Within a few weeks, the Chateau will be moving. Owlie is flying away to a super-cool science journalism fellowship where she will spend the next ten months evolving into an uber-journalist. I’m very proud of her, and very excited, and to say that I’ll miss her is a drastic understatement.
Owlie and I, though we passed through a ‘mortal enemy’ stage somewhere during adolescence, are close enough to be considered two heads on the same set of shoulders. And although me getting married and moving off to husbandland has put some distance between us, it just means the shoulders have gotten a little bigger. I’ve kind of been avoiding the issue- not thinking too hard about it, trying not to bring it up, but within a week or so, Owlie will be gone and I will be oceans away from the sister that I have 24 years of inside jokes saved up with. (Tartar Sauce: The fish that doesn’t swim)
It’s only fair I guess, Owlie had to deal with Abez withdrawal when I got married, and now I have to deal with Owlie withdrawal for a while. It’s not permanent though, InshaAllah she’ll be back soon. And I’m going to fly down to the states to visit too.
And now Daddy will be heading state-side too. Lil Brudder, our great huge youngest sibling, is in need of some Dadderly guidance to get through college, and so Daddy is heading down for a few months. Momma has been in the states for a few months now, and you would think years of living like a nomad would desensitize me, but I miss my Momma. I miss Lil Brudder. And now I will miss Owlie and Daddy.
Alhamdulillah, I have HF and Bebeface here, and Hemmie has been drafted to be my stand-in sister, and Mona has volunteered too now that’s she’s back from India, which gives you the warm fuzzy feeling of being loved and knowing that you’re not alone, but you can never replace your family. You can add on to it, but you can never replace it.
And the Chateau is being packed up and rented out, so my castle in the sky with cake in the fridge will have someone else living in it. Let’s hope they bake. I wonder if they’ll let me come over on Thursdays.
Sigh.
