In Russia: part 2

From where I sit in the Harrisburg Int'l Airport, I can observe travelers getting in line for the security checkpoint. They seem to emerge mysteriously from behind a giant Christmas tree decorated in ornaments of blue, red and gold. From there they melt into line, dutifully check in their bags and head off toward their gate. I will soon join them. The boarding pass in the pocket of my fleece dictates that my journey will culminate in Russia.

Of course, it will not be my first trip to Russia, maybe not my last. But it is the first trip any of my family will make to a Russia without Shannon. Even though over the past 6 years we have learned to associate Shannon with Russia, and Russia with Shannon. This is the same for everyone who knows Shannon, who knew her - they all understand that Russia was the greatest part of her passion and her pursuit - and most of her life. This trip is intended to aquaint us with her family in Russia - those with whom she worked closely, the people whom she loved and who loved her in the same way we did - as a sister and daughter and aunt.

The remaining five of our family have dreamed of such a trip as this, but not under these conditions - and perhaps it is only these conditions that could unhinge us from our lives to such an extent as to make this trip possible.