My mom was sitting in the living room looking at a photograph of Ben and the fourth graders with whom he spent the last month. She chuckled out loud and murmured about the goofy boys and smiling girls. Then she was quiet.
“Hmph,” she said. “I miss him already.”
He had just flown back to school after almost a month and a half here. It was a luxury to have him around. But now he is gone again, and we miss him just days later.
It’s not the normal empty nest syndrome. I’ve had an empty nest of sorts with him since he was three, sharing time with his mom. The nest has been half empty for many years, giving me plenty of time to get used to it.
So no, it’s not the emptiness of it that we notice when he’s gone. It’s that we miss him being around just as he becomes a fun, interesting adult to be around.