Empty Nest

I was talking to an old girlfriend from my childhood, briefly, the other day and she was commenting on how  devastated emotionally she will be when her two children finally grow and move out on their own. Her oldest already started college, she is 21 and still lives at home and her youngest is almost 16.

I was thinking about what she said after she walked away and it left me heartbroken. My children were 2, 4, 8 and 15 when I experienced my second divorce. Thankfully this old friend has never had to experience one. My ex husband received custody of my children leaving me alone for what has been years now. I will not have the opportunity to feel that "empty nest" feeling when my children go off to college because they are already gone. I will never be able to experience the closeness a mother feels with her children because I am unable to be with them continuously day and night. That connection one mourns when a child leaves, I will never feel. Instead, that mourning is what I will feel continuously. For me I have been mourning that feeling every other weekend for almost ten years. The sadness has entrapped me for all this time, never actually going away. They leave and I mourn them every other weekend.
So my dear friend that will be so devastated emotionally when her children leave that said "nest", be thankful that you don't have to endure it continuously and every other weekend.~Renee