Full Circle

(The smoochy face Dandelion Princess is my granddaughter, Atalie Jolene, the other one is my son's next door neighbor's daughter, Riley. Riley decided I was her Grandma, too, this weekend.)

I've mentioned on here several times that I've worried about a lingering distance between my youngest son and I. He's the one that stuck with me through his high school years when his brothers high-tailed it to their dad's. He's the one that sometimes pointedly pointed out that he knew I'd been drinking in front of his friends back in high school.

One such scenario occurred during his Senior Prom dinner that I fixed for him and his date-now my DIL- and another couple.

"Do you think I can't tell you've been drinking," he asked as I served up the dessert.

He's the one who, when I wrote him a few weeks ago to apologize for everything and the distance between us, wrote back and said he's always been right here, the only distance has been in miles.

I went to stay with him this weekend while the daughter-in-law had a girl's weekend in Denver with some other Air Force wives. I don't know what made the difference, if it was that final apology, but the distance I'd always felt, the guilt, the uneasiness, wasn't there.

We hugged hard. We laughed hard, It was easy.

Sunday afternoon I was in the kitchen making dinner-roast beef and an apple pie-and he was next door playing cards and drinking beer with his buddies. At one point, he came into the kitchen and said, "You're more than welcome to join us."

So I did.

When I got there, one of them offered me a beer.

I said, "Sure, get me one of those."

Matt, my son, laughed. "Yeah, right."

There was never any question in his mind that I was joking.

"When was the last time you had a beer, Mom? Five years ago?" he asked in front of his buddies. And I know I heard pride in his voice.

"Just about," I answered.

With pride.