Pulling the Wagon

The liberty to go on a sailing adventure doesn't just descend from thin air...at least not for us. When we decided to purchase a catamaran and move on to it, there were still many life obstacles we had to overcome. Selling our home and our airplane, retiring from medical practices, and a big one... helping our youngest son, Ben, through high school.

My dad likened fatherhood to pulling a wagon. The responsibility kind of sneaks up on you as a young man. One day you look back and there are your wife and children in the "family wagon" waiting for you to put on the harness and get to pulling! Mortgage, food, tuition, clothes, it mostly rests on you. Somehow the servers at the restaurants just know that you are the guy they're supposed to give the check to.  In many ways it has been an honor and I wouldn't have traded the last 23 years for anything;  watching Greg, Meredith and Ben grow to adulthood. Really, I think I got to watch Maite and me grow to adulthood as well, but that's another story. Still, through it all, the weight of that wagon...is just there...always. You pull because you can, it is your duty. All good fathers know what I mean, and many mothers do too.

Ben was a freshman when we started  this whole sailing plan and here (in the photo at right) he's preparing to leave for his senior prom.  It happens so fast! His graduation was far more poignant for me than my other two, Meredith or Greg.  I was and am very proud of him. He had become a man in front of me, (for the most part), but also... he was the last out of the house. Some of my tears shed that day were for the passing of that part of our lives.

For years we have worried, nagged, nurtured and reasoned these kids through a thousand things. The nest is now empty. Relief, joy, sorrow, excitement, anticipation, pride. I will miss his being around and under foot, just as I missed the other two, and still do, but he is the last.  My wife and I were no longer responsible for their day to day existence.  Ben's turn to pull his own wagon!