Our youngest daughter =
is making solid preparations to move along in life. She finishes high s=
chool at the end of this term (June 2012) and just a few days back, we s=
igned papers for her to move in to an apartment — in another city — fo=
r a year while she goes to school. She has her eyes on a beautician'=
;s school, in order to become a hairdresser. I think this will be a goo=
d field of work for her, matching well with her talents and interests. =
We've begun the application to the school. They tell us it is far e=
arly enough; she'll get in, only we have to complete all the paperwo=
rk first.
So, a recap:
Our oldest child is out on her =
own, afloat somewhere in the service of the U.S. Navy.
Our seco=
nd child is to be married this coming summer, and she and her husband wi=
ll then set upon a life together of their own.
Now, our younges=
t is getting ready to leap into her future, attending school next year a=
nd starting a career thereafter.
That leaves us in what we call=
in America the "empty nest" years. The children will have al=
l moved on. I wonder if my readers in other countries have a cultural p=
hrase for this circumstance.