The Hardest Part of Leaving

I have spent much of my life solo, I’ve traveled from place to place making new friends and leaving old friends. I’ve never really felt attached to any certain place or area. Although I must admit living in the mountains of Western North Carolina and being in Asheville has felt more like home to me than anywhere else. Still I feel a need to travel, to see new places and have new adventurers. Mayo and I are always talking about our bucketlist and how we don’t want to wait until we are too old to do some of the things on it. Mayo says our bucket will have holes in the bottom so that it will never fill up and we can keep adding adventures to our list. Its always hard to pick up and say good bye to those you love and have become more like family than friends. I know as difficult as it is for me, it must be even harder of my wife.
Mayo has live here for over 20 years, she has friends and friends of friends. She is loved by everyone she knows and everyone that knows her. Most of all she has family here. She has 3 sons and 3 grand sons. She has a young granddaughter here in Asheville. She has a daughter in law that’s more like a daughter and best friend. There are kids that grew up with her kids and parents of those kids who still keep in touch. I know and love them all, but I don’t share the same relationship with them as Mayo. A mother’s love is something that words sometime can never explain, so I will not attempt to explain it. I can only tell you what I see and feel when we talk about this matter.
Mayo always smiles and says “ I’ll be okay,… we’ll come up often to see them or we’ll have them come stay with us.” I usually reply saying something like “ Hey, hey, wait a minute, no need to ruin a good vacation by having them come stay with us.” ….. “ Can’t we just send them a post card saying having a great time, wish you were here!” I don’t know why she puts up with me. I think she knows that in my heart I love and will miss them too, just can’t let them know it,.. it will go straight to their heads.
That’s the hardest part of leaving. Missing our family and friends. Missing being able to call them up and say “Hey what’cha up to today,.. wanna come over and hang out?” or “bring the grand kids over let them spend the night!” It seems that every issue ends up with a call to Mayo for advise. They may be full grown with kids and relationships of their own, but they will always be her babies and grand babies. She will always be their Mayo. So even though she smiles and even though she will be happy to travel and sun her buns on the warm sandy beaches. I know the love in her heart for her kids. I now know the hardest part of leaving.