At 10:10 PM, Jenny joined the family and Jeff followed a minute later. Having Sarah a few years earlier helped prepare us for the double dose of love, affection and insomnia that would be required in the months ahead. Lisa was truly amazing in the way she was able to keep things balanced in our lives. I was so lucky to share these special times with her. I only wish I would have said so a little more frequently.
I met Lisa during one summer at Namakan Lake. I had grown up in this part of the state only a few miles from the Canadian border. The terrain in this part of Minnesota is rugged as the Chippewa Mountains (which were more like hills) cut through the lakes and provide a majestic backdrop for the Superior National Forest.
For several summers, I worked as a dock boy at Twin Falls Resort helping guests with their boats and doing a lot of odd jobs. I don’t think I really appreciated the beauty of the area. There were so many lakes like this one with crystal clear water and pristine shorelines that held back miles and miles of pine, birch and aspen. They all looked the same to me. I never really gave it much thought until I met Lisa. She seemed to be mesmerized by it, and continued to be for years to come.
I remember when she arrived at the resort and I helped her family unload their luggage. Having worked there for 4 summers since I was 14, I had seniority over the other dock boys and was given the task of welcoming guests as they arrived. As part of the introduction, I explained a little bit about the lake and the wildlife and the general services offered at the resort.
Lisa got my attention right away. She asked several questions and she was beautiful, so I was very happy to make her family’s stay as pleasant as possible. I even offered to give her family a tour of the lake as part of our “welcoming tradition” at Twin Falls. Steve, the other dock boy working this shift, chided me for that one since giving a tour of the lake had never been part of our “welcoming tradition” in the past.
But Lisa was special as I came to learn over the course of the next 7 days. And I thought the stars were truly aligned when I discovered that she would be starting her freshmen year at the University of Minnesota in the fall . . . just like me.
What began in the land of 10,000 lakes continued to manifest in Arizona as we watched our little family go to preschool and kindergarten and dance and soccer and first dates and all the other milestones that give life its exclamation mark. By this time, Sarah was beginning her fifth year as a teacher in Los Angeles. Jenny graduated from Arizona State and was starting a marketing internship in Denver. Jeff got his journalism degree and took a dream job as a reporter for Sports Illustrated in Chicago.
The nest was empty. Like the roadrunners that dart across the desert horizon, our family was moving on to new things and new beginnings which we always knew would come one day. It’s the endings that one can never really anticipate.
They say things happen for a reason but I’m not sure that’s always true. Sometimes they just happen and the reason is neither apparent nor desired. Lisa’s cancer came quickly. What started off as a persistent cough spread faster than the experts at Mayo Clinic could control.
Lisa said she was so proud of the children and what they had accomplished. She had seen them graduate and each start exciting careers. We were all together on Labor Day weekend for what would be the last time before the funeral. The best thing we could do for her, she said, was to keep the family together.
“Call each other,” she said, “text or tweet or whatever else you need to do to stay connected with each other’s lives. And most of all,” she said looking at me, “take a week each year and go back to Twin Falls. I’m putting your Dad in charge of that one.”
So as the snowbirds moved back to Arizona for their annual pilgrimage to the valley of the sun, I was returning to Minnesota on a mission of my own. I had to smile as the Southwest Airlines pilot told us the temperature in Minneapolis/St. Paul was 8 degrees with 15 inches of fresh fallen snow on the ground.
I was the first to arrive and spent the next two hours waiting for the kids to land from other points west. I reserved a SUV and one by one loaded the luggage for our 4-hour drive north. It was so great to see them and our hugs were especially long. We had said goodbye only two months earlier. This would be our first Thanksgiving without Lisa at Twin Falls.
Not very many people get married in the snowy season up north. Most young couples choose the summer months when the temperatures are ideal and travel is easy and predictable. But when Lisa and I chose Thanksgiving weekend to get married 30 years earlier at Twin Falls Resort, we thought it would be perfect. Lisa reassured me that the moment will be frozen in time forever.
The northern part of the state already had 2 feet of snow but traveling was unaffected because this area knows how to handle winter weather. There might be as many snow plows in Minnesota as there are boats. As we passed Moose Lake, the energy inside the car began to rise. We were less than a half hour from our destination.
It’s always a comforting feeling seeing the familiar sites along this stretch of the trip. There are more twists and turns and incredible scenery as the elevation of the road began to rise along the Chippewa range.
And one landmark in particular brought back special memories for everyone in the car. As you drive along Highway 53 coming out of Cloquet, the walls of the forest give way to a spectacular sight right in front of you. The undulating peaks of Crescent Mountain were blanketed with snow and seemed illuminated against the sun fallen sky. Sarah reminded us what her mother used to say on every Thanksgiving trip before . . . "Look, it’s the wedding cake in the middle of the road!"
It was beginning to feel like home again.
Read other responses to the February 2010 writing prompt or submit your own response.