Goodbye Indiana

This moment is bittersweet.
The plane just took off.
The sunset is a bright red circle with all sorts of colours adorning the Indiana sky.

Goodbye Indiana.
You’ve been home since 1979.
You represent so much to me.

You remind me of my parents when they were young.
You remind me of my parents when they first moved to The States.
They did not know anyone. They did not have anyone.
They only knew each other and their kids.
They did not know anything.
They only knew of their love for each other and their kids.

I wish I was around back then.
So I could help them.
So I could love them.

But they did it.
One day at a time.
And soon Indiana became home.
We were in Lafayette then West Lafayette for years.

It’s still the place I call home.
We went to grade school there.
We went to junior high there.
And then high school.
And then college at Purdue University (for the boys, my sister was super smart and went to St Louis for school).
We went to church there, first St. Lawrence and then Blessed Sacrament. I became a Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football fan.
We had our first dog and our second dog there, to this day our family a family full of dog lovers.
We met some of our best friends there, to this day, still among our best friends.

My parents moved to Greenwood soon after all the kids moved out. And they became fast friends with the community. Of course they did. They were the most popular “kids” in town.

The kids are grown up now, married with kids of their own (and one single guy).

Indiana was home.
It still is.
We just don’t have a house there anymore.

So once again, I said goodbye to Indiana tonight.
The sky looked beautiful, perhaps more beautiful than I’d ever seen it.
And in the clouds, I could see the faces of my beautiful parents, the two who have inspired me for and supported me through everything.
I don’t know if I will ever come back.
And for that, I felt a small lump in my throat forming, thinking of the place our family has called home through five decades.

I opened the windows one last time.
It was so beautiful, quite fitting as I’d never seen a sunset sitting in an airplane before.

Goodbye Indiana.