Home from my long trip

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

For the last thirty-five days I've been traveling and now I'm finally

home for a few days until I leave on Wednesday for the

Symposium in Indianapolis. It's been a grueling, yet fun trip that

my husband and I made with my grandson Austin and one of his

friends. It was our last trip together, and it meant a lot to Bob and

me to share this special time with Austin by giving him a trip to

remember.

For those that don't know me well, I'll try to briefly explain. My

grandson is now 11, and I have been his guardian for the last 10

years. His mother left him with us when he was an infant while

my son (his dad) was stationed in Korea during his second year

in the USAF. My son divorced this woman and sought custody,

and she willingly agreed. But my son was an aircrew

member of a C-17 and for the next ten years was flying all over

the world on three to six week missions for the Air Force. Since

he was never state-side long enough to care for his son alone,

he asked me and his step-dad to raise Austin until the time

came that he could get a stateside ground assignment and care

for him himself.

Much to our disappointment, that time finally came this year. My

son got a C-17 instructor's position this year in Altus, Oklahoma.

While we are happy for our son that he is finally able to do what

he always intended to do, we grieve to lose Austin, since during

all these years he has become like our own child.

So my husband and I took Austin on a wonderful road trip

starting the third week of July and visited the Outer Banks, the

Wilber and Orville Museum, Hershey Park, Home of

Chocolate in Hersey, PA, a long visit to my home town, Lake

Placid, NY in the Adirondacks, and then a several day stop to visit

my brother's family in the mountains of southern Virginia. We got

home long enough for me to unpack, do laundry, and repack,

and then the past two weeks I've been in Oklahoma, taking

Austin to his dad's new house and spending some time helping

my two " boys " adjust to their new life together. We had a tearful,

heart-wrenching farewell this morning in Oklahoma and I made

the sad journey home to a now too empty, too quiet house. I

know that emotionally it will take us months to adjust to finally

being " real " empty nesters. Well meaning people, who don't

really know us that well, have said, " oh how great it will be to not

have that responsibility anymore and just go out and do whatever

you want, whenever you want, and have fun " ......and my husband

and I just shake our heads.

So this explains my brief postings during the last month. I've not

had much time or energy to get on the computer. Our trip was

very stressful, especially riding in the car. The boys were

wonderful travelers and had a great time. But my pancreas just

doesn't deal with car riding after the second hour, and several of

these days were 6-7 hour journeys to get from one place to

another. And although we had a lot of fun, there was a lot of

underlying stress, and we all know what stress does to our

bellies, even good stress!! So in that regard, it's great to be

home!

Thanks for listening to my explanation of why I may have seemed

detached and not quite my usual self these past weeks. I'm

really excited to meet whoever is able to be at the Symposium

this week, and plan to take copius notes to share with all those

who isn't able to attend. I hope everyone is having a great,

stress-free weekend.

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

Note: All comments and advice are personal opinion only, and

should

not be substituted for professional medical consultation.

" What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters

compared to what lies within us. " - Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Guest guest]

Heidi,

welcome home, though I know it will be a long while for you to adjust to

it being just you and your husband. Is Austin able to contact you and

your husband by internet? You might want to see if Austin can get on one

of the instant messengers so that you can talk with him as often as you

like without the cost of a high phone bill. Just an idea I had, in case

you hadn't already thought of it. I know Austin will be missing you as

well. I'm sorry your pancreas was bothering you during your trip and I

hope it can get some rest while you are home, even if it's only for a

short time.

I'm really looking forward to meeting you. I even bought a digital

camera so that I can take pictures of everyone at the Symposium. I had

my hair cut (and the lady cut it quite a bit shorter than I intended).

Oh well, it will grow back. Luckily, my hair was somewhat short to begin

with, so it won't take all that long to grow back.

Well, I'm going to go or I'll continue to ramble on for sometime. See

you soon!

Kimber

--

Kimber

Vallejo, CA

hominid2@...

Note: All advice given is personal opinion, not equal to that of a licensed

physician or health care professional.

[Guest guest]

Heidi,

I am glad that you had a good time with your grandson and got to spend

time with him. I know how long car trips are on a pancreas because there

are days that I hate to even get in the car to go to the store and pack and

then the days I have to go to ton are really hard. I hope you are

doing a little better and know that you miss your grandson very much. Take

care and talk to you soon.

in Sumter, SC

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