This holiday season has been a very quiet one for me. I suppose it is only right that this be the case since the nest is now empty and my marriage is over.
This morning, early, I drove #2 to the Baltimore airport and the tears began to flow as she walked away to her terminal. Thankfully she didn't look back...I suspect that she was feeling the same way I was. Sad that the vacation was over....that Christmas was just a memory...and it was now time to go back to the real life of responsibility and work.
On our way to the airport, #2 told me that this was her best trip home. She said that although the first part of this trip had started stressfully because she had to travel to her mother's bedside in the hospital, she thanked me for making the trip so pleasant during the last part.
She also reflected on the expanded role that the dentist is playing in the life of her mother's family. It disturbs her. It disturbs her aunts. It disturbs me!
The man is as the O'Lovey's home nearly every evening and is included in every gathering. It's really EVERY family gathering.
For example, #2 invited her grandmother to go to a Mexican restaurant on Friday night. Grandma announced that the dentist would be going with her. On Friday afternoon, #2 also invited her cousin and Lovey's baby sister and her husband. When #2 got hold of grandma to establish the time of the dinner, Grandma said that it would be up to the dentist....that #2 should call him to arrange the time. #2 said she would not call the dentist...and that dinner would be a 7pm. However, by the time I had gotten home from the office on Friday, #2 announced that the dentist would not be joining us after all because he was having dinner with his own daughter before she left the area.
Well, we all got to the restaurant. It began as a fun evening...and everyone seemed to have a great time. Just as we were finishing our appetizer, the dentist appeared! Someone said, "Weren't you supposed to have dinner with your daughter tonight?" He responded that he would probably have heartburn because he ate so hurredly in order to get to be with all of us. So he plopped down right by Grandma!
They then proceeded to have their own party. It was as if the rest of us had totally vanished.
Since all of us had assumed he wasn't coming.....I had picked up grandma and her sister and delivered them to the restaurant. To me, it was a bit rude when the good dentist took it upon himself to put the aunt in his car at the end of the evening. Grandma then joined them. The three of them vanished into the night.
It creeped all of us out.
Another thing that I noticed was that the dentist tried to invite himself over to the cousin's house to see video he shot during the annual Christmas Gathering. She told him that it wasn't going to happen and as he tried to keep pushing the matter, the cousin's husband said that they only had a DVD player and not a VHS player. At this, the dentist dropped the matter.
#2 wanted to say goodbye to her grandma on Saturday evening, but the dentist was there when we got to the house and #2 told me to go back home. We then got home and a message had been left saying that the dentist wanted #2 down at Grandma's house to see the Christmas Video. #2 refused to go. When she called her grandma to say goodbye, the dentist answered the telephone!
Finally she was able to talk to her grandma and told her that she was going to stop by to see her personally, but when she saw the dentist's car, she didn't want to interrupt.
This is a very strange situation. But, it's not something I have to worry about because I'm no longer a part of that family. I will tell Lovey....if I get an opportunity.
It just goes to show you how the drama continues in Lovey's family...
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