Doctor in the House

The screen door bangs and they’re gone. Then, some time down the line it bangs again and they’re back, your kids, or your kids’ kids or your kids’ friends. It’s been like that for us anyway.Once we had six kids living here though really I gave birth to only three; just the three kids we made ourselves using the handy home kit. One by one they grew up and left home as kids do. The house got so quiet. We slept with the bedroom door open and cooked only when we felt like it. This lasted for almost ten years.Then this past March one of these ‘extra’ kids moved back in with his young wife and they have been living here ever since as they worked on finding a new job (him) prepping for the fearsome CPA exam (her) and finding a place of their own which we will be available to them on August 1.We love having them here but now something even cooler has happened: Above on the right you see Sarah, who has been our oldest daughter’s best friend from the day the two met as freshmen at Wellesley. Only now, more than ten years having passed, she’s a sure-enough MD, newly arrived in this medical Mecca to do a fellowship in Infectious Disease.She too will find an apartment when she gets the time to go looking but for now we are the lucky ones because for all of July and  maybe even until September, she is living here too.   Two night ago our local-enough kids came here to welcome her and they were all still laughing at the supper table when David and I went up to bed.So once again, the hot water tank is getting a workout. Once again the kitchen is always open. And I can’t think when I’ve been happier.