Virtual Glenny is no substitute for real mom

So it was that time again for the annual trek to Fairbanks to watch the last middle-school wrestling tournament of the season.

Every year around the tail end of February and beginning of March we made the long drive to spend the weekend shoehorning ourselves in a smelly, hot, loud, over-crowded gym to watch whichever son was wrestling at the time. And we love it! But this year was special because it was Devin’s last year in middle school and he is the last of our “Moose.”

As my wife Glenny and I crawled up and around the hills in our trusted Chevy Astro, our talk was more serious than usual. We had recently found out that Glenny’s mother is facing serious issues with her diabetes and a kidney transplant might be in the near future. Glenny was the prime candidate for a donor. Also, in the same phone call, we learned that her father was in the hospital with some sort of gastric issue and was being prepped for surgery to remove whatever obstruction was giving him grief.

No fun, but not entirely unexpected either as he had been having issues with that for a while. Somewhere around Cantwell we gained a few minutes of cellphone service and almost immediately Glenny’s phone rang. Mom calling to give us an update. Suddenly, Glenny shouted, “WHAT?!” and lurched forward in her seat. Uh-oh. Turns out the “obstruction” was a softball-size tumor surrounded by many other smaller tumors throughout the area — stage IV.

Well.

We decided to continue our drive up to Fairbanks (Devin was up there waiting, after all) but immediately upon arriving we checked in, jumped on the laptop and purchased a one-way ticket to Seattle (her parents live in Washington). A quick hug for Devin, a fast bite to eat and it was, “Bye, mom!” at the Fairbanks airport. So now it was just daddy with the two youngest (Portia and Benjy) and Devin (who was staying with his team). We headed back to the school to see how he was doing, but it was getting late; just a quick “see you tomorrow.”

A rather frazzled dad shuffled around the hotel room talking to Glenny on the phone (she had a five-hour layover in Anchorage). I smiled a bit when I saw that Portia and Benjy had prepared the dining room table with fancy rolled-up Subway napkins we had brought in from the van, poured some glasses of water and had served up our take-out on plates (we were in an apartment-like suite, complete with all the kitchenware, etc.).

We finished up the weekend (Devin took first!) and made the long drive home, now with a sick Portia and a progressively sick me. Yuck. Had to sit through the Iditarod traffic in Willow on the way back. Yuck. But as we walked into the house, there were our good friends Jon and Hayley cooking dinner for us and doing some work on my Jeep. Well, wow, that was unexpected, and quite cool.

And so it has been for the last month. Dad and the kids. But you know what? Aside from missing Glenny terribly, it hasn’t been that bad. Jon and Hayley have dropped by all the time to make us dinner, take the kids or just hang out. My older boys have stepped it up to help make dinner, check the mail at the post office and drive their little siblings to school when they had a project too big to carry and otherwise just look out for dad.

At one point, Justin (the oldest still at home) had to wake up at 2 a.m. to drive me to Alaska Regional where I learned just how horrible kidney stones are. (Why, God, did you have to bestow such a wonderful experience on me while Glenny is out of town? It couldn’t wait until she got back? Sheesh!) So, yeah, no matter what came along, we made it work. Granted, the menu changed a bit. Nobody can cook like Glenny, but we managed on hamburgers, hot dogs, spaghetti, pizza muffins, tacos (lots of tacos) and breakfast food. Portia even made chicken Alfredo one night all by herself!

Even though she’s gone, Glenny has still been here “virtually” through the magic of Skype. She gets up early in the morning and talks to the two little ones as they get ready for school. She even helped Benjy with his homework. Morning, afternoon and evening we have been able to check in with mom. Never been a big follower of modern technology, but this is pretty neat.

She’ll be flying back home this Friday and we couldn’t be more excited. (Hurry! Clean! Clean like the wind! Mom is coming! Mom is coming!) Because even though we did all right while she was gone, even with Skype there’s nothing like having her here.

Ben Compton is a Palmer resident and publishes his column as “Compton’s Corner,” the same title used by his grandmother, Phyllis Compton, a longtime Frontiersman columnist. Contact him at bcompton1971@yahoo.com.