Another Time in Place

 Yesterday was D2's 29th birthday! Wow -- my youngest is in her final year of her 20s. She worked from home, per usual, and then she and Jonathan went out to some top sushi restaurant on South Beach. We got to FaceTime, and on Saturday, the Full Squad plus the grandson, now part of the Full Squad, too, will descend upon us for a day of celebration. It's likely that the grandson will receive multiple dog licks on his beautiful face -- his birthright, being born into a family of dog infested houses.

I, of course, clearly remember the day she was born. The day before, Eric and Dana hosted a first birthday party for their baby girl Jen, at Eric's parents' house in Kendall. They were down from Boston, where Eric was completing his medical training. It was a lovely day -- D1 played with a little girl, Marissa, and years later Marissa would do her Dietetics internship with D1, and the two would become professional colleagues and friends. Marissa now has a baby boy -- just like D1 does.

Jen's paternal grandparents, Marvin and Norma, have both passed on. They were like a set of second parents to me -- I still miss them dearly. Her maternal grandmother Barbra just died, too, a few months back. I guess that's the problem when nearly 3 decades go by -- you lose dear ones.

Anyway, the next day, a Monday, I drove Wifey to South Miami Hospital, and a no complications C Section was performed, giving us D2. It was planned, unlike D1's C Section, and Wifey left the hospital in just a few days. My in laws were watching D1, and they brought her in to meet her baby sister. She went right up to her and kissed her head. I melted. I still do, at the closeness of my Ds.

We brought her home to our house in Kendall, and, as fate would have it, lived a most eventful year. Professionally, we settled the first jumbo case I brought into our firm, and our finances improved radically. As if to reinforce the lesson from the Big Man not to prize stuff too much, in August of '92 Hurricane Andrew blew in and destroyed ("mistroyed," as D1 malapropped it) nearly all our possessions. Of course, the then liberal storm coverage converted the wrecked stuff to even more money, and I opened an investment account. Shares of stock appreciated in the ensuing years a lot more than tchokes.

My late Mom always said that "Babies bring luck," and so it was with D2. Her birth heralded an amazing year. Oh yeah -- I kind of fell in love with her, too, and still dig her today.

It turned out Wifey had a doctor's appointment yesterday, for a follow up on a serious but thankfully improving problem. Because of Covid, I walked her to the doctor's office and then waited outside. And then it struck me -- I was on the South Miami Hospital campus -- the very location I had driven her 29 years before, to the same day! A lot sure can change, and surely does, in close to three decades.

Speaking of D2, she's headed over today, with her enormous puppy. She'll set up her home office in the dining room, and work here while Miriam, our longtime cleaning lady, works on the Grove apartment. Wifey and I love these days -- overhearing our most professional daughter conduct her business calls with such expertise and talent. D1 has labeled the voice "Serious D2," in contrast to the usually more taciturn and witty girl we typically spend time with.

I truly enjoy being rooted to a place. Truth is, in my close to 60 years, I've really only had 2 homes: Long Island for the first 17 years, and Miami since.

In the elevator on the way down from the doctor, a woman maybe a little older than I came in. I joked that I was naughty, and needed to stand in the corner facing away -- per the Covid protocol. She laughed -- she had both jabs, she said, and wasn't too worried. I told her I had both, too -- and instead of doctor's offices, we ought to be drinking martinis across the street at Foxes. "Wow -- you're old school," she said, understanding that Foxes closed years ago. I said I was, and still missed that place, where my mentor Ed first taught me to drink martinis -- probably a few years before D2 was born.

We said goodbye, and I waited for Wifey in the gorgeous winter sunlight. I was thankful. I was rooted. I took notice of place and time.