The "A Mother's Unconditional Love Is Forever" Story

It was an ordinary day.  My wife, Carol, is talking on the phone with her friend Margaret about Margaret's granddaughter who is a sophomore in high school and is going with the school band to Disney World in Florida to perform.  She wasn't sure she wanted to go, but her friends and mother told her how much fun she would have if she went.  Becca is a homebody and doesn't like to stay away from her mom for any length of time.  When Carol told me the latest news about her trip to Florida, we began a conversation about our daughter and her also being a homebody.  When BW, our daughter, was in high school she was a member of the youth group at St. James Episcopal Church and they were heading to Italy for exploring and sightseeing.  She was a junior in high school and it was all we could do to get her to climb on the bus to head to Philadelphia airport to get on the plane to Italy.  This was back in the mid 1990's and there was no means of communication such as we have today to talk with her while she was in Italy.  But, one day Carol heard the phone ring and upon picking up the phone found it to be BW.  She told Carol she wanted to come home.  "They can't keep me here," she said. Carol told her, "You have to stay for the length of the trip.  Talk with a few of your friends and you will be fine."  She made it through the trip, but it didn't end there.  After graduating from high school we made plans for BW to go to Millersville University to obtain her teaching degree.  She was going to stay in the dormitory with a friend whom she had known from her softball playing days.  It did not go well. She missed home and after 2 weeks we relented and she became a commuter.  We received some credit for the room and board, but not an entire refund.  The following year she asked if she could stay in an off-campus apartment complex near school with a high school friend who was also going to Millersville and we agreed to that, hoping she might get over her fear of being away from home and her mom.  She did do well and graduated with her teaching degree.  The following year she took a teaching job, but moved back home.  But, by then she was madly in love with this fine young man who was also going to teach in Lancaster County.  His home was in Maryland.  She talked us into allowing DM to move into the spare bedroom and by the end of the school year they were engaged.  Well, it's been over 20 years since then and BW now has a daughter who will be heading off to college next year.  And...you guessed it...she doesn't want to move away from home and her mom.  She was hoping to go to a local college so she could be near her mom.  So, the saga continues!  I know about all of this since Carol and BW talk on the phone just about EVERY evening.  Something about a mother and her daughter.  And, I certainly don't mind. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.