Our next door neighbor Catherine and her son Jacob are moving one week from today.
I've known about this for a few months and have tried to will it away. Hoping that June was far enough away to never actually happen. Well it is happening and I can no longer deny it. Especially as a parade of Jacob's possessions he has outgrown have been arriving on my doorstep for the past few weeks. Puzzles, pirate ships and trains -- oh my! It truly looks like a toy factory in here. My dining room is now decorated in a style I call dump truck modern.
But the excellent handmedown toys are the least of it. Catherine is a good and loving person. Back after I had Hugo, I knew no one, and I desperately needed to. In the middle of winter on a maternity leave from hell, of all the people I reached out to in the neighborhood, most never got back to me. But Catherine, a working single mother and the one who had the least time to spare, is the one who always had time to listen and help. I am forever in her debt for this.
Her Jacob is an incredible kid. He is bright and he has heart. He sparkles from within and is one of those kids who you know understands more than he lets on. He is multi-talented and on his skateboard he is daring and reckless in just the way you wish you could be right now. And when he plays with our dog, Stan practically vibrates with delight. I tell Stan that someday Hugo will be this way and he just needs to hold tight. Like June, that day will come.
They are moving someplace it never snows. So I hope this video I took of Jake this winter, will help him remember us northerners.
