It was like hugging a piece of my past. A past I almost forgot existed. The fact that I was standing in the middle of the rush in the arrivals lane of the busy airport didn’t faze me one bit. Everything would wait, the noise, the cars, the people, I blanked it all away as I held on to nostalgia.
We grew up together, different households but the same family. We walked through life together, sometimes not seeing each other for years but our lives always ran parallel. Today, after decades, I was about to get some closure. I was going to acquire the motherly comfort, the sisterly love and the best friend bond that only a person who lived without can understand. I like to think I single handedly manifested this meet, but I know full well that it takes two people to build on a relationship of this magnitude.
She’s not just another family member, she’s not even just another person. She’s my soul sister. My connection to so much of my turbulent history. She is my dictionary for words that don’t exist within the boundaries of my life. It’s a past like ours that makes you bitter and withdrawn.
For us though, we had that one antidote that kept us intact, we had each other. We always managed to laugh it away. Even the painful moments, we covered them nicely for each other. We laughed away pain so the other could understand when no one else could. Laughter, it does so much more than just make you happy in the moment. It eliminated our need to be somber and serious. We didn’t see a reason to stop, we laughed because we wore it the best of all the possible choices, we looked our best when we laughed it away.
Today I will celebrate the meeting of survival, I will celebrate an everlasting bond. When I look forward I see us still holding on to each other, it’s rare what we have. Looking back makes it unreal. Lost parents, damaged relationships, marriage, distance and life through us off course. Somehow we always steered back to that inseparable connection we held. It’s very real, superficial doesn’t exist in our world.
We’re stronger now, walking more confidently as we’re aging gracefully. I straighten her crown as she wipes my tears and together we are holding on to a little bit of the past that needed nurturing just a tad more. I know, in another week when I come back to this very place that makes goodbyes hard, these very tears of happiness will turn to tears of the saddest farewell and I will stand here and try and hold on to nostalgia once again.
As I released from the embrace and reality sunk in. The noise of my surroundings filled my ears again. I glanced at her face, it’s matured like our relationship. The smile hasn’t changed just like the person, the one who never gave up on me.