Grandson Finn graduated from the First Presbyterian Church Children's Care Center Preschool in Howell, Michigan yesterday. Finn and his classmates were the center of attention as moms and dads whipped out their cellphones to capture photos of swinging tassles and graduation t-shirts.
Liesl said to me a few weeks ago, "Mom, Finny's graduation from preschool is the day that you fly back from England, but don't even try to make it. That will be a long day for you." But, in the spirit of all things serendipitous, Peter, who became the fetch-us-at-the-airport child this trip, worked out a car and parent retrieval schedule that included a stop by Howell and the graduation ceremony.
Now, I'm not very good at long flights through multiple time zones. We left our London hotel at 6:30 am London time yesterday, connected through Amsterdam and on to Detroit, so there was a awful lot of, to quote John Denver, hanging in the sky time.
By the start of the graduation at 6:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time, it was 11:30 pm back in London and I was feeling the effects of not much sleep and too much flying. Finny's big day and his sweet smile took care of my fuzzy head and brightened a long day of travel.
When did we get home? Well, Ed has amazing ability to stay awake. He drove from Howell to the lakehouse, another 140 miles. We arrived home at 10:30 pm, just as the new moon was setting. We hadn't seen the moon or stars all the time we were in Great Britain, so stepping out on the terrace and seeing stars so bright you could pluck them from the sky was a treat.
Total time in transit was 21 hours. It was a big day for Finny's graduation and for Grandma's travel. And it is good to be home in Michigan.
Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler
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