Takodah came into my dad’s life through my mom, and he was always the one who drove my sisters and me to and from camp. I remember stopping for a picnic lunch at Atkins Farm in Amherst, Massachusetts, on the drive home from Takodah to NJ one year. I was irritable, snapping at my sisters, and being generally nasty. My dad gave me a quick hug and, with a handful of illuminating words, helped me understand—and implicitly gave me permission to feel and see as perfectly normal—the loss and sadness I was experiencing after the fullness of my time at camp. I had never anticipated a ‘reverse homesickness’ after leaving camp; I had no idea that there was something driving my snotty behavior as I left camp behind.

I am so grateful to him for introducing me to an understanding of and permission to feel loss and sadness.