Adam J. Choit

I don’t know if this is something specific to Jewish mothers. Perhaps it can apply to all mothers.  Perhaps, you don’t even have to be a mother for this to apply, but sometimes it’s just hard to understand the logic (or lack thereof) of others.

Recently I took a trip back east to NY, and it was my last night in my childhood home before I was due to take an early morning flight the next day back to Los Angeles.  I have a grandfather who lives in Queens, about a half-hour from where I grew up, out on Long Island.

Anyway, my mom told me, “Call your grandfather and say goodbye.”  What?  Why?  What is the point of calling him to say goodbye on the phone?  I understand the point of the in-person goodbye, but the goodbye phone call?  A phone call sounds exactly the same whether I’m calling my grandfather in Queens from Long Island, or I’m calling him from California.

If my grandpa didn’t even know when my flight out of NY was, I could’ve called him from California after I got back — just to say goodbye to him.