Worth reading: Beautiful writing from Charles Cohen on sending two daughters off to college....
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Commentary: Emptying the nest and all the melancholy it brings
Knowing the day would come when both girls would be dropped off at college didn’t make it the least bit easier
By Charles Cohen/ccohen1330@gmail.com
Published 8/27/2023 5:30 a.m. EDT
By the time you read this, we will have crossed to the other side — the side of the empty nesters, still parents — but on standby.
For the past 20 years, our family unit at home has been my wife Amy, me and our two daughters, who’ve grown in a time-lapse that is so surreal that we humans have been designed to not really digest it. In fact, I felt a need to write this now, before we crossed over and dropped off both our daughters, Lilah, 18, an incoming freshman and Ellie, 20, a junior. Surely, upon our way back with the empty van, the transformation will have taken hold.
By the time you read this, we will have crossed to the other side — the side of the empty nesters, still parents — but on standby.
For the past 20 years, our family unit at home has been my wife Amy, me and our two daughters, who’ve grown in a time-lapse that is so surreal that we humans have been designed to not really digest it. In fact, I felt a need to write this now, before we crossed over and dropped off both our daughters, Lilah, 18, an incoming freshman and Ellie, 20, a junior. Surely, upon our way back with the empty van, the transformation will have taken hold.
Rather than confront the void and the quiet of a childless house, I wanted to capture this sensation of life shredding like a space capsule, ripping through the atmosphere. It’s all beautiful and temporary, and fading and real, but as permanent as wind in grass. And yet, I strive to hold an essence of these passing moments in my hands, which, of course, is impossible. Even childhood photos, elegantly framed and well-placed, don’t age too well on the walls of empty childhood homes, but that didn’t stop me from trying.
And so, I actually took notes, particularly of the mundane, like when Ellie was 2 at the beach…..