Life has a way of moving faster than I can even imagine. One day I’m a little girl and the next my own little girl, Maryellen is graduating from college, engaged to a nice young man, launching her career, and planning a wedding. Such is the way it felt in nineteen ninety-two. I’d been so busy living life that I had hardly noticed the passing of time. I was only forty four years old but I had lived through a lifetime of events. Somehow I felt older and wiser than ever but also amazed that I was already in my so called middle ages. 

Meanwhile my younger daughter. Catherine, was about to begin her own journey to adulthood by entering her freshman year of college. She had been admitted to Texas A&M University but was not quite ready to leave home, choosing instead to spend her first year at the University of Houston while she decided what exactly she wanted to declare as her major. She reminded me so much of myself at the same age, capable of doing just about anything, but unsure of what direction to take. 

I hoped that I had done enough to prepare my two daughters for the surprises that interrupt virtually everyone’s life. I wanted them to be resilient because I knew what kind of things might actually divert their plans. We just never know when the unexpected will enter our lives. All we can do is hope that we will have the fortitude to face whatever challenges come our way. 

The women in our family had all faced daunting setbacks and navigated well through the worst of times. I often used their stories to inspire my girls. It was difficult for them to imagine my two grandmothers whom they had never had the pleasure of knowing. Whenever I of spoke of those two wonderful ladies I’m not so sure that they fully understood the magnitude of their strength. After all, neither of them were able to read or write. They seemed so anachronistic to my thoroughly modern daughters. It fell to my mother and mother-in-law to provide models of the kind of people I hoped Maryellen and Catherine would be. 

I suppose that every mother who has ever lived has had dreams for their children even while understanding that ultimately their offspring must create their own goals. I have always believed that a good parent allows children to be independent in their thinking and to deviate from what has always been viewed as the norm whenever they so choose. I appreciated that one of my daughters had chosen a career in business and the other was leaning toward science. They were also far more progressive in their thinking than I had ever been even though my friends thought of me as a liberal hippy. I suppose that my determination not to overly influence the critical thinking of my daughters led them to feel free to be themselves. 

Eventually Maryellen married her beau, Scott, in a lovely wedding that combined his religion and hers. They moved away to Beaumont where Scott had his first job as an environmental engineer. It was a town about ninety miles away from Houston, so they were able to spread their wings of independence while we were able to easily visit them from time to time. 

It was difficult for Maryellen to find a job in Finance in such a small place so she returned to school to earn a second degree in Accounting, a field that seems to offer job prospects everywhere. Catherine in the meantime had transferred to Texas A&M University and changed her major multiple times just as I had. Eventually she specialized in rangeland ecology, even learning how to drive a tractor and do surveys. Along the way she attended an annual tradition at Texas A&M called Muster. Her intent was to honor my father, the most devoted Aggie of all time, with the ceremony designed to remember former students who had died. 

While she was there she noticed a young man giving her the eye from across the crowd. It was apparent to her that he was flirting. She remembered meeting him previously at a party. He had asked her out for a date and she had turned him down. Suddenly he looked more interesting that he had before. She hoped that he would call her again, but when he did not she took the initiative and called him. The rest would be the blooming of a relationship that would ultimately lead to love, but first both of them had serious business to complete. They wanted their college degrees so they began “dating” by mostly studying together and talking about their futures. 

Meanwhile back at our empty nest I threw myself into my own career with even more abandon than ever. My masters degree was complete and I assumed a leadership role at my school. It was an interesting job that involved working exclusively with the teachers as a facilitator for their needs. My principal had originated the idea and it proved to be so successful that eventually all of the schools in the district created similar positions. It was fun to be a trailblazer, but more importantly to assist my fellow teachers with the many demands continually being placed on them. I was enjoying my work more than ever and would soon be planning to be a fairly young grandmother.