Celebrating My Daughter’s Return to East Coast

Dearest Daphne,

How overjoyed I’ve been to tell my friends: “Daphne and her family have bade their farewell to Mountain View, California, and moved to Philadelphia’s Main Line. Your husband Etan has told you: ‘Your mom can visit as often as she wants.” He grew up outside Philly, and his parents still live there. Not to mention that Jack and Lucy love getting together with their first cousins, a short distance away in New Jersey and Delaware. Imagine all being in the same time zone!

In just two days, I will be driving to Philadelphia in my Suburu Forrester to help with Jack and Lucy while you and Etan take turns flying to California, emptying out that cramped ranch you rented for an outrageous sum in the Silicon Valley. Can you believe this will be the first time in 17 years that I have lived within driving distance of your home?

Packed inside that Suburu are two twin down comforters I hope will warm Jack and Lucy when they experience a full winter season for the first time since you left Atlanta in 2015. I know that I will be in your new home long before the cross country movers arrive, so I also have air mattresses, linens and hangers. But I also realize the Bagel Guillotine I bought in anticipation of one of your visits is something you and Etan will use more than I do, so it’s one of many items stuffed into a big reusable shopping bag. Ah, the joy of traveling by car!

Remember the time I arrived at Boston’s Logan Airport during the wee hours of the morning in hopes of boarding an early flight -- with a connection in Denver -- that would get me to San Jose Airport in time to watch Jack’s basketball game? As it turns out, the computer system went down at Logan, causing me to miss my first leg of the flight. I finally arrived at 10 pm that night after stops in St. Louis and Las Vegas. Once the Covid-19 pandemic arrived, there was no way I could get on an airplane, no matter how badly I missed Jack and Lucy.

Okay, the fact that you were living in California made it possible for me to join you in a visit to Squaw Valley, and travel to Maui and Kauaii with you and your family without having an obscenely long flight. The San Francisco Bay Area  is where I sampled nitro cold brew for the very first time, enjoyed excellent Mexican Food, and delighted in eating Chess pie in the Mission.  

Of course I will miss your super California mom friends, especially your neighbor who welcomed you with a coffee cake when you first got there in 2015, and always made me feel welcome when she and her husband hosted birthday parties. I always looked forward to seeing her and her parents whenever I came to Mountain View.

I’ll also miss Shuli, that charming Israeli woman who led the Mommy and Me class at the Palo Alto JCC, welcoming me with open arms. As for a fun memory, it has nothing to do with Shuli, but rather with Lucy, a one year old when you arrived in California. After gathering up every crayon at the easel in a JCC playroom, she shrieked louder than anybody could possibly imagine when another toddler tried to grab them. Good for you for standing your ground, Lucy!

I will always remember Jack, then four, returning home after his first day at the JCC pre-school, and saying one of his teachers said: “Tomorrow you need to bring a lovie.” Despite a school policy against lovies that make noise, I mischievously asked you if you were going to bring that pig that made a loud oinking sound when you squeezed it. Of course you couldn’t resist squeezing your pig during naptime.

No doubt Jack and Lucy and I will forge new memories in Philadelphia, and I will get to know their school and their friends, just as I did in California. What’s more, after learning remotely since February of 2020, they will actually be in classrooms with other kids their age!

See you soon!

Love, Mom