Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-04-14
WHEN THE NEST IS EMPTY

The other day I came across nest
which, few weeks ago, was filed
with little family over which the
mother bird brooded. She had watch
ed her fedgelings for such a long time
that 1 wondered, now that they had
flown away, what she would do. The
chances were,j judging from other feata-
cred families, that she would 60 happily
on her way, focking with her kind in
the fall, making her winter pilgrimage,
and, free from household cares, sing
ing until spring in some Southern
country.
The birds are not the only mothers
whose young have flown away. Every
June bride, every boy who has finish
ed at college and gone North, South,
East, or West to build new home for
himself, has left behind some little
mother whose heart is desolate.
In the lives of many women their
children have been the one interest,
and they experience in losing them
not only sene sof the giving up of love,
but of lack of occupation. They have
become SO accustomed to looking upon
the husband as merely the father of
the children that many men wonder
if they have any place at all in the
domestic lexicon. A friend OF mine,
mourning the marriage of her daugh-
ter, was aghast al her husbands bitter
ejaculation: Gam 1, then, nothing to
you?" She was wise enough to assure
him that he was everything, and she
congratulated herself that she had not
further alienated him at time when
the result might have been fatal to
mature married happiness.
The wise woman knows that there
comes to her after the nest is empty a
second youth time. She experiences
freedom after years of sweet bondage
from which she did not seek to be
released. She has time for the work
of the world and for the trips she has
always wanted to take. 1t is always
a joy to me to meet in Florida and in
California the middle-aged couples
who are having second honeymoons,
now that there are no babies to rock
or boys and girls to chaperon.
This is the time for the wife to re-
new her acquaintance with her hus-
band. She may find that there is
more of the boy in him than she had
believed possible after the burdens of
wedlock. She may find that all these
years he was wanting her tenderness
and sympathy, but has let her pour
them out upon the children because he
could not be quite sure that she still
felt her girlish alteration for him. She
may find that he and she still have
common taste in music and art and lit
erature.
And all this renewal of the joys of
courtship and of early marriage need
not interfere with her love of the nest
lings who have flown away. They
will come back, inevitably appreciat-
ing mother more than ever, because
distance always lends an enchantment
and because the young people learn
through their own matrimonial prob
lens to understand those of their par
ents.
AS for the worlds work, do you
know where you are needed, you
women who have no more children to
mother? Go into your Church or the
nearest settlement and learn of the
babies who want your tender care.
Learn of the young mothers of the
tenements who will bless your name
if you can give them the benefit of
your experience and advice. Learn of
the girls who are tempted and the
boys who go wrong, and for the sake
OF your own nestlings, who have had
the safe shelter of the home, help these
ones who have fallen in
hard places. l believe it is the wise
mother who can guide and direct with
knowledge gained by experience. I
believe, too, that grandmothers are in
valuable not only in the home but in
every organization, just as wise old
men are help in the council and ca
binet and all places where the hot
Readiness of the youth must be curbed.
The ideal woman is one who, having
been good mother, is content to be
good grandmother. But she need:not
be old-fashioned in the sense that her
grandchildren shall look upon her
merely as beneficent fairy who hands
ont cakes and cookies;she shall be ra-th
er gracious godmother who has
held on to her heritage Of youthful