From the time that the two boys were little, they had a connection. This picture is one of my favorite ones of the two boys. Whenever I took students to Germany, I wore my Chicago Blackhawk jersey. The bright color made it easy for students to see me as we rushed through airports on the way to connecting flights. The days when people had to run to catch up to me when walking is a memory from a long time ago.
Even during the last exchange I did in 2001, I saw a difference. Suddenly, I was in the middle of the pack, and I couldn't run at all. But I wore the jersey still.
That was two years before the birth of these little boys that changed my life. I would never see things the same after that. My idea of how to spend time or places to visit changed dramatically.
I remember the last full year I taught, the spring of 2003. Lydia came home in the final month of the school year, and she and Kristin came to visit me at school at the end of the day. I carried both boys in my arms through the office area.
The few times she came home were at critical moments during Jeff's taking care of medical school. At times there were finals, or during residency, there were times when he had to stay at the hospital, leaving Lydia and Tommy at home alone, so it worked out well to have them stay with us occasionally during those difficult times. It was easier then with only one little one.
I remember talking to my mom on the phone when the two were just crawling about the house. Neither could say more than a couple of words, and they only spoke them when hungry or thirsty, yet the two would jabber and then crawl away together.
I knew they understood each other, because they coordinated the mischief they found together. "They're communicating," I told my mom. She laughed when I told how closely we watched them as they crawled off and found various things to discover, usually in bottom drawers or lower shelves of the kitchen or bathroom cabinets.
And once, Kristin and Jack traveled to Ohio for a while. It was another opportunity for the boys to enjoy each other's company. It was another time when Jeff was doing work at the hospital for extended periods of time for long hours.
But those times were days when the two boys became close friends. And by the time that 2004 came, it was a serious time when I was going through a second series of chemo treatments after my leukemia returned after a very brief six month remission.
The little ones are just additional reasons I had to fight to regain my health. Even when I was very sick, their hiding under the kitchen sink made me smile. The many cleansers and soaps that once found a home there had long since reached different homes, so there was plenty of room for the two boys to giggle and have fun there.
The pictures showing the two boys at home in Idaho Falls just before our trip to Disneyland brings back the best memories. I had tried to return to school after the first chemo treatment. And after finishing the school year, Ann and I took off for California in the Jetta.
Lydia and Tommy and Kristin and Jack followed a day later. They left by plane. We met them at Disneyland two days later. It was a glorious time, one I will never forget--especially the day they pulled into the hotel parking lot. Ann and I waited for them on a bench, and the boys spotted us immediately.
The day before Ann and I left, the two sensed something was going to happen. They crawled up in front of my chair and sat on my feet the night before we left.
As one-year-olds, they loved Disneyland and the rides, but they also had fun playing in the curtains in Hotel California. The stay there in that new hotel was something I will never forget, both because it was an incredible suite we had, and because we also were able to get it at a very good introductory price. It was a vacation to remember the rest of my life.
Like I said, my grandchildren changed my perspective forever about what was important to do and what places were important to visit.
The last time we took Jack to Disneyland, we asked him where he would like to go if he could choose visiting anything in the world. The answer came quickly. He wanted to visit Tommy. That was even more important that going to Disneyland.
Being with his "best bud" was the important thing.
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