I Don’t Want to Say Goodbye

Four years ago when I was in charge of the welcoming committee for the upper school I gave myself the most interesting new family coming to the school for me to mentor. They were from South Africa and had twins, a boy and a girl, joining Carter’s class. Being a new family’s mentor sometimes gets you a new friend, but this time it got our whole family four new friends. It is a rare occasion when all the Lange’s like all the people in one family, but the Ushpol’s are those rare kind of friends.
Carter and Cait became great friends and Cait has been a fixture at our house. Adam is easy going enough to put up with us. Mark and Russ talk about business all the time and Kelly has learned Mah Jongg and played with me for years. The Ushpols would come to the farm for thanksgiving and were great sports when the crazy Carter conversation went awry. We celebrated birthdays, went to auctions and toured college together.  
It was a sad day when Mark got a new job in Atlanta last year, but Kelly and the twins stayed in Durham to finish school. So I had a whole year to not think about their moving. But now the move is actually happening in this week.
We had the Ushpols and another friend, the Roses, for dinner tonight as one last time together while they still lived here. It was like so many of our dinners, talking politics and what the children will be doing when they go off to college. I couldn’t bring myself to talk about their move. I couldn’t toast our friendship or how much we have loved having them in Durham. I am in denial that they are leaving. Perhaps it is that the children are all going off to college so I feel like Kelly and Mark are just going to college too.
This isn’t goodbye forever. Adam is going to UNC so I know I will see them at parents weekend when they come and stay at the Lange Bed and Breakfast. Kelly is a consummate communicator so I am sure I will get plenty of texts, Facebook comments and blog responses, still I am sad. Another ending. And who is going to come to the farm for thanksgiving with us and entertain my parents? The Ushpol’s were the last family I mentored and I saved the best for last.