For the last 17 years, I’ve spent many of my weekends at my in-laws’ home in Glen Cove, Long Island, swimming in their pool, having fun around the backyard, relishing fabulous family feasts, and just relaxing amid all the tweets and chirps and calm–or, in other words, relishing a suburban lifestyle that I often rail against.
Amazingly, all the good stuff largely persisted for the last two years, even while the family has been awash in the stresses and frustrations of selling the house and figuring out a good and viable living situation for my in-laws. For that, my mother-in-law, and my wife and her sister have much to be proud of.
My wife grew up in this house, and essentially it remained base camp for her and her siblings as they became adults and had children of their own. Like all their cousins before them, my children, who are now almost-12 and 8, will sometimes gripe about having to go out to Grandma’s again (“Didn’t we just do that?”), but I’m sure they’ll one day realize how lucky they were. I can’t speak for the other adults, but I think the same will be true for me.
–Eric Messinger
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