When my grown son moved in with my girlfriend and me, I thought we were in for a disaster. I kept remembering what Phyllis Diller said about cleaning the house when your children are growing up being like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing! But as it turns out, I’m actually learning to like it.

Despite my initial reservations, a part of me did want to have my son back, to get to know him as a man and not always remember him as a noisy, rebellious teenager. He had just moved back into town on a new job and suffered a rather bad attack of pneumonia. After discharging him from the hospital, the doctor recommended that he take a couple of weeks vacation to relax.

To my surprise, it was Alice, my girlfriend, who suggested that he stay with us for a while. And to my even greater surprise, he actually accepted.

It did make me feel quite apprehensive at first, but perhaps my perception of him as a potential house guest was overly influenced by memories of the times he practiced with his high school rock band in the garage or insisted on painting his bedroom walls black. And then there was the question of how he would take to Alice, whom I had recently asked to move in with me. It would be rather awkward because my son didn’t really know Alice that well and I always harbored a nagging feeling that he took my divorce from his mother rather badly.

Things couldn’t be more different! I came home the first day to find them both laughing away in the kitchen while trying to cook up dinner. Our first meal together felt very much like a family. I know Alice is a warm person with a wonderful knack for opening up people and making them feel loved and wanted, but I have to credit my son with meeting her halfway and accepting her gesture of friendship.

The two weeks are almost spent and there is half-hearted talk of my son moving away. I would like him to stay, but I know he will eventually move on again. It’s just so many small things, but I feel more connected to him now, like I really know him. Maybe I’ll convert the space above the garage into a small apartment and he can stay with us once in a while…