My wife and our kids were … sitting in the middle of the living room floor, but they weren’t packing to leave. They were packing my suitcases away into a garbage bag.
I watched the footage, confused and terrified. Then, I saw my wife holding a letter, jumping up and down with the kids. She was crying happy tears. I paused the video and zoomed in as much as I could on the document she was holding. It was a letter from my company’s headquarters.
Then I saw her grab the sharpie and write that terrifying note: “Good-bye!”
But on the video, I saw what I missed in real life. She didn’t place the note on the table to leave it for me. She placed it firmly on top of my travel bag and my passport holder.
She turned to the kids, grabbed their hands, and I could clearly read her lips through the grainy footage: “Daddy doesn’t have to go away anymore. He got the home office transfer!”
The silence in the house wasn’t because they were gone. It was because they were hiding.
I dropped my phone on the rug and looked toward the living room closet. The door creaked open, and my wife and kids burst out, screaming “SURPRISE!”
They weren’t leaving me. They were saying good-bye to the distance that had kept us apart for so long. I fell to my knees and hugged them all, crying harder than I ever have in my life. I’m never leaving them again.
