The One Where We Started to Say Goodbye

So the time has come to start with the goodbyes. As a very wise friend recently said to me: Some people struggle more than other people with endings. I think I am one of those people!

There is no doubt in my mind that we are making the right decision, in fact a great decision. Qatar is going to be great for many reasons and we will settle in and we will make friends and we will have fun.

But that is only after we leave here.

I think I underestimated this.

When we came here I thought it would be ok to be leaving, moving around the world, I didn’t think that in the relatively short time we would be in each country we would be so emotionally involved with people. I naively believed that we all live like passing ships, therefore making it easier to leave.

How wrong was I?

The kids have left school now. They have both taken it very much in their stride and Joey especially seems very passive about the whole thing.

The tears began when grace received a card from her class. Her teacher had also commented in there saying - Remember, study well. Sweet little bunny! I wish you a bright and beautiful future. Be a good girl and lead a good life, I love you so much Grace! I'll miss you a lot. I was so deeply touched by what she had written. Gracie really struggled to settle in school, to the point where one day we had to take her out kicking and screaming, but since then she has become so happy there and to know how much her teacher loves her was really moving. That card is one of our many keepsakes that we are taking around the world!

Later that day came our first goodbye. Sadia was leaving for the UK. As we left her villa to go to the kids’ school a deep well of emotion began to overflow. Thank goodness I had my sunglasses on to hide the tears! this was quickly followed by a few goodbyes at school. Suneetha, graces teacher came to me to thank me profusely for the picture and frame I had given her and in return she gave me a lovely wall hanging her niece had made by hand. These are the gifts that sit on peoples walls that will forever invoke such memories from a person’s past every time they look at them. a private journey back in time.

So this was when the real magnitude of all this hit me.

A period of long drawn out goodbyes.

In some ways it would be easier if we could say of goodbyes in one day and get on the plane and leave them behind. Then it would be just one set of tears, one set of emotions, and just one emotional event to recover from. But we will be the last to leave. So instead we shall be left to feel the change and to feel the emptiness of this little bubble we live in.

The people I have met here have enriched my life. They have entered our lives and our family. these are friendships that it is hard to close the door on. And these are the friends that it is hard to say goodbye to. Inevitably this is going to be a difficult week, I don’t feel myself, and in a way I just want it over with. I am not usually one for public displays of emotion but I think this week may become an exception!

People never really know the profound effect they have on your life. How they impacted your life with such happiness and how things they have said or done will stay with you forever. I can only hope that one day I can have a small percentage of that effect on other people's lives.