Notes from the CZO - The Day After The Visit

Notes from the CZO, Chief Zayde Officer   The Day After the Visit

The morning after our grandchildren left our home to return to Baltimore (with their parents), I spent 45 minutes trying to wedge the car seats from the back of our Honda. Reaching the anchors, hidden behind the back seat put my aged fingers to an excruciating test of endurance and required a dexterity beyond my 71-year-old capacity. Think of spelunking blindfolded. The car seat removed, I spent the next 20 minutes with the hand vacuum prying bits of Cheerios, fig bars, and animal crackers from the seat. A sticky outline of lollipop residue remains. While I wrestled with the car seats, my wife Jo began cycling the multiple loads of sheets, pillowcases, and towels through the wash. (A note about this marital division of labor, several years ago, Jo asked me to move the wash to the dryer. I responded: “Which one is the dryer?”).

Cleaning the basement playroom was another matter entirely. Doll clothing, Brio train pieces, and Lincoln Logs (remember Lincoln Logs?) lay strewn across an approximate 50 square foot area. We removed the batteries from a 30-year-old Fisher Price ambulance as its piercing noise caused a shrill feedback noise in my hearing aids. We will pick up or step on Lego pieces for months to come.

Our dog Maddie may have been the most disappointed to have the grandchildren leave as she no longer has access to fallen (or thrown) mac and cheese, bits of bagel, challah chunks, and Honey Nut Cheerios. And now, the house is clean, toys picked up, and the laundry done. Exhausted, we sit on the couch... and we miss them desperately. Gone is the joy of their laughter, the grandparental pleasure of snuggling with them while reading bedtime stories, the patter of little feet descending the staircase in the morning, and the sheer, unmatched delight of hearing “Zayde, Zayde, Zayde”!

Remaining are the memories of lighting Shabbat candles together and watching my children bless their children, baking cookies together, and the delight of romping with them at the playground. How can we measure these moments? I cannot help but return to Jacob’s words in the bible after he experienced his dream of angels: “Surely God is in this place, and I knew it not.” Surely, angels were in this place.