Dear Friend

Facing the Empty Nest...

“The door is always open. Unfortunately, so is the fridge.”

Dear friend,

A little over ten months ago, my youngest daughter left for university. For the first time in three decades, I found myself living alone - something I believed I was completely prepared for.

They fondly call it an empty nest.

I’ve never been entirely comfortable with that phrase. Empty suggests something lost, abandoned, finished. This phase is definitely not that. I refuse to allow it to be that.

So I started to think of it as an open door.

My daughters no longer live here full time, but they are still here. Everywhere. In the photographs lining the stairs. In the mugs they always reached for. In the teddy bears still waiting on the bed. Their voices echo through countless memories tucked into every room.

Nothing about this house feels empty. It’s simply a home that has learned to welcome departures as well as returns.

I’ve also started to think that this chapter wasn’t just about them leaving. Maybe their leaving made room for something new in my life, too.

Now the youngest is home for the summer, along with three loads of washing and a case full of stories. It’s funny how so much changes, yet so much stays the same. Either way, it’s a privilege to be here for all of it.

So, friend, let’s think of these as the open-door years. The door through which they leave to discover what comes next, but also the one through which they return.

Somewhere along the way, you’ll realise it has opened for you, too.

xx