What A Week!

By Robin "Red Hot" Kaye

It’s been a crazy few weeks in the Kaye household. My son, Tony graduated from High School on Sunday! I told him we were either going to have a graduation party for him or a wake—the choice was his.

I am eternally grateful he chose to graduate. It’s not that I was worried about his grades, his grades were fine, it’s just all the little things one has to do to graduate like pick up the cap and gown, turn in his service hours, pay the fifty dollars for the Chemistry book that disappeared, and that last pesky little detail—registering for graduation.

Both my mother and Stephen’s flew up from Florida on Friday, which meant I spent the entire week suffering from PMS—Pre Mother(s) Syndrome. Yeah, I’m told I turn into a witch before they come. I end up spending the entire week catching up on cleaning, laundry, trying to figure out what the hell to cook and generally being psychotic. Can you blame me?

On Saturday we took the whole gang to Longwood Gardens for the day—it was lovely. My sister-in-law drove down from Buffalo, NY and met us there and came back for the graduation.

Finally it was graduation day! We all pile into the car and go to the local college auditorium. Tony was in Choral Ensemble so he had to get up and down a few times to sing, then he walked across the stage and got his diploma! Cheers rang out and I wiped my brow. One down, two to go.

Of course we were too far away to get a decent picture, so I thought, that’s fine, we’ll go out on the grounds and get some beautiful ones with him. I was actually looking forward to taking those pictures you see every family take—Mom, Dad, and Graduate, entire family and Graduate. You know those pictures—the ones I’m not posting because my dear son ran up to us and said, “See you at home, I’m taking off to beat the traffic.” We got this one before he faded into the crowd. 

My son is the type to show up an hour early just so he can get the perfect space for a quick escape. Yeah, I don’t get it either.

Tony was home and had changed into his shorts and his favorite T-shirt long before we made it home. Hence no cap and gown pictures except the few my husband was able to snag before Tony took off like someone lit his tassel aflame!

The party was wonderful and to top off the week, today my 85 year-old stepfather is on an Honor Flight from Tampa, Florida bound for Washington D.C. to see the World War II Memorial. My mother (who would have flown up with him if she hadn’t already been here for Tony’s graduation), my entire family, and I are going to meet George (AKA, Pop) at the WWII Memorial and spend the day with him and the other 69 Vets on the Honor Flight.

If you haven’t heard about Honor Flight Network it’s an amazing program where they fly WWII Vets and their spouse or a guardian from all over the country to Washington DC and bring them to the World War II Memorial so that they can see THEIR Memorial. For information about donating or volunteering for Honor Flight Network click here. We are losing WWII Vets so quickly, it’s a race to get them all to DC.  

Pop and Tony have always been close and I think Tony was more excited about Pop’s Honor Flight than his own graduation. Maybe this time I’ll be able to get pictures of both of them.