Once Again

It's that time of year for proud parents to brag about their graduating child. They have spent 18 years of teaching, admonishing, warning, encouraging, disciplining and loving that child. Now it is their time to rightfully brag, feel proud and send out the photos.

At the same time these same proud parents are grieving and struggling to let go. It is time to send out that child that they have nurtured and protected into the cold, uncaring, dangerous world. At least that's the way it must feel after the years that they have provided a safe environment in their home.

Now is the time for the "bird to fly from the nest." In the case of the birds, never to return. Parents forget at times that their child will always remain their child, to cherish and worry about for the rest of their lives. Once a parent, always a parent. Once a child, always a child, even after "death do you part."

                            The last formal occasion before the son leaves the nest.

                                                        Congratulations to the parents for a job well done!