My firstborn child, my son, shipped out to basic training on 3/3/2020. It is the last day of "normalcy" I remember for this year. The plan was to visit him 8 weeks later, for his graduation. That never happened, because COVID travel restrictions were enacted, and his base was closed to the public. Since then I have missed yet another graduation: his Phase 1 tech school. He is soon to begin Phase 2, and once that is complete he is bound for Alaska. I hope I am able to see him sometime in the interim.
Many are the times I half-expect to hear him galumphing down the stairs to go raid the kitchen, or swear I hear the faint strum of his guitar drifting from his room. No one told me that a mother's heart can break even as it soars. No one can prepare you for that.
