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The Life and Times of
THOMAS GODFREY MAGILL
Part One: The First Year
Chapter Four: Goodbye to Maryland
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It became apparent early in March that Tommy, Amelia, and I were going to have to move in with my parents down in Orlando. It seems that most new parents run into trouble at this stage of the game, and we were no different. Finances were rough and it was time to take advantage of our generous family in our time of need. So we started getting ready for the move by packing up our stuff and making sure Tommy got to spend time with everybody in Maryland. We took him to see his distant relatives Robert and Joyce (Robert is the son of Marion, who is the aunt of Patricia, who is the mother of Amelia; you can figure out what to call the relationships between them and Tommy, because I don't want to), who of course loved him. We met them at a restaurant near their home, and during the entire meal, Joyce held on to Tommy and wouldn't let him go. We also got to spend quality time with the friends we had made in Maryland (there are no pictures with them, unfortunately), who came over a couple of times during the month. Two of those friends, Nick and Kim, who had a kid of their own who was approaching a year old at the time, generously gave us even more baby clothes, on top of the swing and other supplies they had donated to us while Amelia was pregnant. Saying goodbye to our new friends was definitely a low point of the inevitable move out of Maryland, but I still keep up with a couple of them. We were also visited by Amelia's parents, Bruce and Patricia, who finally had a chance to see little Tommy for the first time. Bruce, normally a loquacious sort, was so enamored with the baby that he spent most of his time smiling and making faces with Tommy rather than talking to the rest of us. They dressed him in the outfit pictured here, replete with bonnet, which was an outfit that Bruce himself wore as a child. Bruce became convinced that Tommy is left-handed at this point, and time will tell if his intuition is correct. The five of us also went to see Aunt Marion, who was beside herself over the fact that we were being forced to move away. She is doing well now, though, and we send her regular packages of photos and letters so that she doesn't have to miss out too much on Tommy's growth. Eventually, my family came all the way up from Orlando for a long weekend of packing and driving. I would be lying if I said this was a fun weekend, but Tommy didn't mind at all. He spent the majority of the packing stage with his grandmother and even watched a few movies with her (including The Incredibles, which left him in fits of laughter). As for the drive down, Tommy was incredibly well-behaved, only fussing a handful of times and only having a temper tantrum right at the end of the trip. Amelia and I consider this nothing short of a miracle. Leaving Maryland was not an easy thing to do, but believe me when I write that we had no choice in the matter. If the whims of chance put us back there, so be it, but unfortunately, it looks as though Tommy will have to grow up not really knowing much about the place where he was born. |
