Alone Before You Know It

It happened last night, it was bound to happen sooner or later but, I did expect it to happen a bit later. Our son Adam is away at University now and our second oldest daughter Whitney is also away at University. Our youngest daughter Erin is in grade 12. Last night Erin was invited to go to a University party with her sister so, she decided to do the 30 minute drive to get there. My husband went to work for midnight and I went to bed. There I was lying in my warm fleece sheets, the bedroom door wide open and I could hear the clock downstairs in the kitchen ticking. I was alone in our two storey home for the very first time. There has always been at least one of them at home. It has been 14 years since our oldest daughter Michele moved out into her first apartment. The other 3 were still very young then. Back then I would never have imagined myself alone in the quiet of our family home. We have lived here for 17 years. It has always been a place where the kids would  gather with their friends to hang out, eat  and when they were younger have sleepovers. Now the odd sleepovers are a boyfriend or a girlfriend on the living room sofa. Erin will also be off to University in the fall. That is when I expected that I would have to get use to being alone in the house. It has come 8 months sooner than I expected. I really didn’t sleep very well, waking up often and falling back to sleep thinking about where they all were. I guess it is time to really get use to the fact that I will be spending many nights alone while they are all off having fun, getting an education and becoming wonderful adults. I think no, I know, we have done well.