Goodbye for a While

My husband has gone back to Korea for a while, to sort out a few things. Our three girls, who have never once been apart from their dad since we came to New Zealand, hovered around him the whole time he was packing — and the moment he opened the big suitcase, they climbed straight in. Half not wanting to say goodbye to their dad, half wanting to go to Korea themselves. And sprinkled on top, like sugar, a topping of mischief. He packed the clothes and shoes he'd need for the trip, and in the end the case was quite modest.

The day before he left was a run of small jobs, divided between us. I took my car in for its WOF, we had the rental inspection, and I had a quick practice in my husband's car — the one I almost never drive — since I'd need to move it while he was away. To squeeze in a little more time with the girls, he picked them up from school, and as it happened the Scholastic books we'd ordered arrived that day. The girls tore the box open on the spot and pored over them, delighted.

The next morning, he was gone. Eleven years married, and apart from my post-natal confinements and the odd short trip of his, we'd never really been apart — perhaps that's why the empty space felt so particularly bare. In the quiet of the morning, I was about to start on the lunchboxes when Min came out to the living room earlier than usual. She checked that her dad had already left, then sat on the sofa without a word. While she quietly gathered herself through the hollow feeling, I went about it as I always do — packing lunchboxes, pouring coffee, keeping busy.

The days that followed were busy, one after another. There was Water Safety, there was the playground after school, and I spent the days chasing the girls' school timetables. One day we went to the book fair held in the school library and chose some books; another day we had a small wander through the Star Shop near home, where each of them spent their own pocket money on a little toy.

Then came the long weekend, hot on its heels, and I was kept busy feeding three growing girls their three meals and snacks a day. Today, on King's Birthday, the girls were bored of being cooped up at home, so we headed out to buy winter pyjamas. We had lunch, played games, browsed a bookshop and picked up a few workbooks, did the grocery shop for the week ahead, and came home.

It was almost a relief that everyday life simply had to carry on as before. For this little while, living under a different sky and in a different time, we come to realise that we are each other's home.