Empty Nest, Full Heart, Lost Connections

When I woke up this morning, I wondered if my son remembered all of the Easters we had as a happy family. I would wait until they went to sleep before putting their Easter baskets together. I loved doing this each and every year. Just as much as I enjoyed coloring eggs every year.

Sometimes it was chaos getting 3 boys ready for church every Sunday. Easter Sunday was no different. My husband’s parents would send a check to purchase Easter outfits for the boys, so we always had them dressed up for the special day.

Sometimes we had to hide the eggs 10 or 15 times for their Easter egg hunts.. They enjoyed this so much. I would fill plastic eggs with various candy and sometimes quarters and dimes. One egg would even contain a dollar bill. I often hid them so well, they were never found. When we pulled the shrubs from the front yard a few years ago, I found at least 3 eggs filled with candy from years past.

This Easter is different. We are celebrating with our one son today. Still making the traditional lamb and sides, but things are different when you are estranged from a child and their children. We thought that we would be doing Easter egg hunts over and over with the grandkids like we did in years past. We still cannot wrap our minds around the why of this. Things were fine for so many Easter celebrations and all of a sudden they were not.

We hope one day our son and his wife have a change of heart and let us back in. Until then, we find joy in our other children and the celebration of family traditions with them. We cling to the memories of the wonderful Easter celebrations of the past and know that we were good parents.

~Evelyn