Subway for Lunch (and Back Again): Years Ago

There are certain milestones in a child's life that show parents that their little kids are growing up -- the first day of school, losing a tooth, etc. For Addison and Brennan, the milestone that sticks out in my mind is the day they got Subway for lunch.

When Lauren was younger, it was not unusual to spend long days traveling to Walter Reed for appointments. Normally Addison and Brennan would pack backpacks full of schoolwork or toys and come along for the day.

I remember one day when I woke them up early because Lauren was sick enough to go to the Emergency Room.

As our time in the ER drug on, Brennan started complaining that he was hungry. I had a supply of snacks in my purse, but it didn't last very long.

Before long the doctors started talking about whether Lauren would be admitted to the regular peds floor to the Pediatric ICU. Meanwhile, Brennan was talking about lunch.

Knowing that I couldn't leave Lauren by herself on a stretcher in the ER, I promised Brennan that I'd go buy him lunch just as soon as we got Lauren settled in a room.

A little while later, we all followed as Lauren moved upstairs to the PICU. Immediately as we walked through the double doors to that unit, Brennan pipes up, "Can we get lunch now?"

Obviously I hadn't thought things through when I promised lunch as soon as Lauren moved out of the ER. It was going to take some time to get her settled into a new room, talk to her nurse, etc.

I looked at Addison who was just nine years old then. "Do you think you can find your way back downstairs to Subway?" She seemed confident and told me that they would watch while they were going down there so that they could find their way back up to the PICU.

I knew they wouldn't leave the hospital and a military hospital is rather secure. I handed Addison a $20 bill and told her that she could ask anyone in scrubs or a uniform for help finding the PICU if they got lost.

Thankfully, they rose to the occasion. They came back about a half an hour later with sandwiches for all of us. Addison even told me how they remembered to order Brennan's sandwich on safe bread and without any cheese (he was still allergic to milk and eggs at that time).

I'm proud of how my big kids grew up just when I most needed their help.

I'm sharing a "years ago" story corresponding to each letter of the alphabet for the Blogging through the Alphabet challenge hosted by Marcy at Ben and Me. I often tell my children stories of things that have happened in our past, and now I'm taking the time to write down those treasured stories.

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