Article August 30, 1999 Issue

Empty nest?

"I thought my world had collapsed. I found myself mourning, 'They're all gone.'"

By Jayne W. Rattman

We've all heard the expression "empty nest syndrome," but I never thought it would touch me. After all, our third daughter had been born some ten years after the first two, so I would have a child at home forever—or so I thought. And that suited me just fine.

Then, after our last daughter's college graduation, the job opportunities for her skills appeared rather bleak in our area. Her prayers led her to pursue work fifteen hundred miles from our home, where she found a very promising job.

Although my husband and I were happy for her, I thought my world had collapsed, now that all my children would be far from home. I found myself mourning, "They're all gone." It was a pathetic cry. How glad I should have been to have our three daughters successfully settled, but human rationalizing wasn't helping a bit.

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