Yes, yes, Thankyou so much! Ahem...You are so right, those early years were such a strain! I spent most of the winters of her childhood bent over at the waist holding a ski pole horizontally in front of her for support, looking like a humpbacked turtle on skis. But I had a Dream. I recall the very first day, taking her into my arms and swinging into a chairlift. Popping a bottle into her little mouth so she wouldn't cry, with visions of this day. It was a lifetime of sacrifice, I tell you. Sniff! Sniff! Thanks for your (wallet) touching remarks.
Unfortunately, it is deja vu all over again, as Cousin Penny (in the island culture everybody you know is a cousin it seems) has just this past Sunday made arrangements to send her first born to us in a matter of a few weeks so we can be surrogates as Ana enrolls as a freshman at Stanford. Cousin Ana will be third generation as both Penelope and Ana's grandfather, Uncle Paul, are former Stanford grads. Ana's home island is Saipan where her dad (Cousin James) slaves away as an MD while Cousin Penny runs a business for children's things. Cousin Penny and Cousin James need to work very hard as they have three lovely girls all spaced about 3 years apart and all destined for off-island education. We are hoping that Cousin Penny will have pinned the tuition check to the inside of Ana's overcoat but island people are sometimes careless and forgetful about things like coats, it being so warm and humid in the Marianas, you know. |
