Leaving Home

The Cadet Princess is leaving her life in Brisbane to live in Townsville, 1533km away.

She's off to James Cook University in Townsville, North Qld to study medicine, & reality has struck me that she will probably never come back to live anywhere nearby again in my life time.

While pleased for her, I'm heart-broken.

Every visit back to Brisbane will be a red-letter day rather than the quotidien. It won't be the same relationship & nowhere near as close as it has been.

How do parents cope under such circumstances?

To a Daughter Leaving Home
a poem by Linda Pastan

When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.

from The Imperfect Paradise, 1988