We just got back from Michigan a couple of hours ago. Headed up there Friday, ate dinner at our favorite noodle joint, let the kids run off their energy at the Briarwood Mall playground (Hannah and Emily's old stomping grounds), had some cookies.
They had one of those bungee-jumping concessions near the center court, and of course Emily just had to try it! I'll attach a pic. She also wanted to go to Build-A-Criminally-Overpriced-Bear and make the Frosty snowman, but I think she got more bang for the buck doing the bungee jumping. I know we did.
Then we headed over to Hope and Sean's and hung out with them for a while. It was so amazing to see them again. They were our neighbors across the street when we lived in Ypsi, and their son Corey, 16yo now, was sort of a big brother to Hannah (and Emily) when we lived there. It's so weird to have to look UP to talk to him! Of course, they knew Emily last as a toddler, even younger than Max. Hope and I had a bit of wine and she was getting pretty sentimental, asking a lot of questions about how it's been for the six years that Hannah's been gone. I think in a way, spending the time with us and seeing Emily especially so grown up, it hit them hard too.
The next day we went to Sandy's house for a while. Emily and Miranda immediately picked up where they'd last left off, and Dan was great with Max -- which left Sandy and me plenty of time to sit and chat. Had lunch and relaxed for a while, then we went back to our old neighborhood for the annual Christmas party/progressive dinner, which we used to do back when we lived there. This year, the Haseys (the ones who bought our old house) hosted the appetizers, and Hope and Sean hosted the dinner part. We didn't stay for the coffee or dessert, but it was still great.
We realized how much we really miss our old neighborhood. As great as it's been here in Ytown, it felt good to be around people who "knew us when", who had known Hannah and experienced her loss along with us. We shared gossip and stories of stuff that had happened in the 'hood when we were there and since we'd left. We both were left feeling that the party was, in a way, much more of a celebration of Hannah's memory than even just being at the crash site on the date was. Everyone here who knows us well has been very compassionate and kind, but they didn't lose Hannah along with us -- our old friends and neighbors did.
After that we headed back to Sandy's house with a few pizzas, and the girls had a "pajama party". We sat around and chatted again and finally got everyone to bed, then spent the morning just hanging out with them. Steve made us pancakes, and Dan tried to convince us that Max needs some pet hermit crabs. Around noon we took off. Sandy had given Emily a bag of some of Miranda's old Junie B. Jones books, which Emily literally devoured -- in the time it took us to get back to Ohio, she read 3 of the books and was most of the way through the 4th one.
We made some stops -- Zingerman's bakehouse and creamery, Trader Joe's, and then Hannah's rock, where we spent a little time and neatened stuff up. That was harder emotionally than I'd thought. It always feels like we're leaving her behind, even though we're not...
The car DVD player made the ride much easier, although the headphones weren't working so Jon and I had to listen to Cars two times through. It more or less eliminated any screaming, though, so it was worth it.
Got home and Ron, an old and very dear friend from ATL, had called us, which was great. Jon is talking to him right now. I'd been thinking of him.
Thanks to the iPhone, we were able to listen to WYSU a bit on the way home, and heard our day sponsor message that we'd issued in Hannah's memory. That always helps, every year.
So anyway. Onward.
But I will say this: Youngstown is no Ann Arbor. And never will be. We are happy to be here and appreciate it for what it is, but it's a whole different planet from A2.
