Embarkation
"Bye bye, Lilian" I hear T say in the kitchen. There's a pause of Lilian's gag, as Kath fills the awkwardness with "Oh, Lilian! We will miss you..." There's sounds of hugging. I join in. January will mark a decade from when Lilian joined our family and she knows she will be missing seeing T grow over the next ten months. I run up the stairs to check something but my mind is more on how it could be the last time I see the upstairs of our cosy house for the longest time since we moved in 11 years ago. The rooms are dusty from boxing and the walls bare, though I feel guilty for leaving a mess of clothes, bags and boxes in the corner and in the cupboards that Lilian will undoubtedly straighten out. Back downstairs with giddy excitement and apprehensive anticipation, we wheel three big bags into the back of Shane's car. The bags, holding the necessities for our life on the road for the year, were only finally zipped closed 4 hours ago (at 1:30 in the ...