BACK TO THE USA

I have been retired for 7 years but have only been back to the U.S. once for the 50th Reunion of my singing group at Tufts, the Beeelzebubs. I am here now to attend the 'Celebration of Life' in Boothbay Harbor, Maine for my surrogate father, George Cochrane, who called me his step-son.

I have nothing against America, she is just not on my list of "post retirement dream trips". At the height of my business travels, between Executive Committee responsibilities at RRA and our 3 girls attending different schools in New England I actually made 12 trips to the East Coast in 12 months and that, was no fun. I made a mental note to stay away from business destinations I frequented such as New York, London, Singapore, Shanghai & Beijing .. reminders of 'work' which is an alien word to my lazy body, and even lazier mind these day. With that as a backdrop I thought I would not be impressed by a 3-hour lay over at O'Hare in Chicago but surprisingly that was not the case at all. Passing through this airport where I spent God knows many lonely hours transiting, I became nostalgic, especially when I walked through this tunnel at Terminal 1 that links to the New England commuter flights. My sentiments have everything to do with our girls at the tender age of 13 when I introduced them to this very tunnel, escorting them to boarding school for the first time and later traveling with them to college. This airport setting has not changed an iota, O'Hare is still O'Hare and America is still America but the girls are adults now. Terri will soon accompany her twins to boarding school and I am 67. We have all moved on. I treasure those 1-on-1 trips when Daddy was their pillar of strength. We 'talked' a lot more on those journeys and those conversations have since been replaced by What'sapp, by pragmatic messages with no soul. C'est la vie!?