05/21/2021
By Kate Stone Lombardi
I’d long fantasized about what it would be like to hug my (adult) children again after 14 months of Covid-induced separation. Both my kids live on the West Coast and I’m in New York. Two weeks ago, my husband and I donned our N-95 masks – we’re both vaccinated – and boarded a plane to fly across the country.
First, I saw my daughter, waiting at baggage claim. We ran towards each other. When I held her in my arms, I felt joy, of course. But I also experienced an almost physical release, as if I’d been holding my breath for all this time. The feeling was replicated when I hugged my son a few days later. A loosening in my chest (can your heart actually be constricted?) and a suffusion of happiness. Of course I cried both times.
The feeling that followed was what I can only describe as the righting of something that had been off kilter for far too long. The world had tilted off its axis and it was now balanced again.
Several times a day that we were all together, I would turn to them and say, “Have I mentioned yet how happy I am?” They’d smile or laugh and say, “I think you have, Mom.” That happiness was almost palpable – I was surrounded by it.
And guess what? I said my goodbyes and flew home, and I’m STILL feeling the joy. We made it. Grateful. Uh oh – tearful again as I write this. But trust me – they are happy tears.