NICU Reunion

I knew what the letter would be even before I opened the envelope when I saw the return address: the NICU reunion.

Our hospital hosts a NICU reunion in the late summer/early fall. It’s a chance to visit and thank doctors and nurses, show off how kids have grown, and feel ill after jumping up and down in a bouncy castle after eating cotton candy. When the twins were little, it was a must-go event. We loved seeing their old neonatologist and favourite nurses, and I would swing by the NICU itself and talk to parents in the waiting room who had kids inside. That meant so much to me when my kids were in the hospital.

Mostly, it was lovely being part of this strange community of people who were all connected because our kids had to live in the hospital for a while.

Sometime during late elementary school, we stopped going. It’s geared towards younger kids, and the twins had moved out of the bouncy castle stage of life. It was bittersweet to skip the first year, but I barely thought about it in subsequent years until I opened this year’s letter.

It’s back in person for the first time in three years, but the date is after the twins leave for college. I will be home, but they will not be.

Part of me wants to swing by, but I’m not really a part of it now. Maybe it’s best to send a photo from graduation and a donation.