A journey towards reunion: from Boca Raton to New York

This was one of those trips that is not planned just as a journey, but as a family story in motion.

At that time, our daughter lived in the United States, in New York, and our son in Australia. The distance between us all was part of the life we ​​had chosen but there was also a deep need to find each other, to be together again, even if it was for a few days.

She had moved to New York for work but had left all her belongings in Boca Raton, where she had studied: furniture, personal items and also her vehicle.

A kind of move had to be organized, and there arose the idea of ​​doing it in the simplest and most significant way: taking the road trip from Florida to New York.

That’s how we decided to meet Tomás and begin that journey together to travel almost 1900 kilometers in the United States.

I don’t exactly remember every kilometer of the route, but I do have the feeling of having crossed an important part of the east coast of the United States, turning the path into an experience in itself.

It was several days on the road, changing cities, going down each night with our backpacks in different hotels, as if the trip was also taking us in chapters.

We passed through cities like Jacksonville and Savannah, with their southern charm, their quiet streets and their history marked in the architecture.

Later the landscape changed, and we also made stops in areas like Giorgia, Charleston, until we reached Washington D.C., where the city already had a different rhythm, more urban, more monumental.

And finally we continued north, also crossing cities like Philadelphia, until we approached the final destination.

Each stop had something different. It was not just a rest on the road, but small postcards of a country that we were discovering while also reuniting as a family.

Beyond the tour, the most valuable thing about that trip was the time shared. Being able to talk with our son for hours, resuming conversations that the distance had interrupted and simply being together again, without rushing.

Our expectation was to arrive in New York on December 22, Madelyn’s birthday. That was the true emotional destination of the trip.

We wanted this reunion to be complete, for the brothers to be able to see each other after more than a year without seeing each other and for that birthday to become an even more special celebration.

And we did it, we arrived the day before, tired from the road but with a joy that is difficult to describe.

And finally, on December 22, 2017, the four of us were together, celebrating that long-awaited day that we also shared with dear childhood friends of Pablo and me, who were something like godparents to our daughter while she lived in that city.

We also fulfilled the other mission of the trip: carrying all her belongings, closing that logistical chapter of her move and helping her settle into her new life in New York.

But what remained with me, far beyond the boxes, the kilometers or the hotels, was something else: the feeling of having turned a transfer into an unforgettable family reunion.