Day nineteen friends! Day flipping nineteen. There is no way I would have thought we would have done so well without any signs of cabin fever. Well from my perspective. Elize might have a different view of the situation here at the Folscher spaceship. Ben is getting more energetic suddenly and is being very “laf” (Afrikaans) at times with generous amounts of cheeky and he hates time-out. Very much so. Thank goodness!
Elize is watching a doccie on Princess Diana and I keep getting distracted which means this blog post might take a while. Just wasted 5 minutes between the previous sentence and this one. Today I miss my family very much. I miss my parents, my brothers and their families. They are all over the world and looking at the world right now I don’t know if we will ever experience a Christmas together again. I mean we have to gather from the four winds of the earth. China, England, Belize and South Africa. And this pandemic is expounding my emotions about the distance between us. Our last Christmas together, in fact the last time we were all together was in 2008. Twelve long years for a family not to be together in one place and just be with one another.
South Africa has produced a lot of this kind of heartache, especially in the last quarter of a century with families continually being split as more and more people felt the need to search for better futures in other countries. What we once took for granted, like future Christmases together, Easters together or just the occasional holiday, suddenly evaporated with each flight leaving our country. It just is the norm now and I don’t know if that will ever change. It is sad but in this reality we have adapted and we grow our relationships with Whatsapp and fight for every moment together. Even if it means asking border security during a layover at Heathrow to let you into London without a visa to see your brother for 3 hours. Yes I did that and it worked. At that point I had last seen him 3 years ago. My youngest brother I had seen 2 years back and the second oldest I had seen last almost 7 years ago. And so we fight for our time together while we all get older and the longing grows. It happens when you grow older. The longing grows.
Ok now I have gotten all depressed and you are like what the heck dude. But it needs to be said. I miss my parents and my brothers and that longing grows every year. Of course should we be fortunate enough to have a family Christmas together again there will surely be a fight, but that is family and it makes me miss them even more. Folschers forever.
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