Weirdest thing, but my friends and I all have what we call “WalMart Moments” where we’ll be in a store shopping and just tear up over some bittersweet memory. My best friend is a bereaved parent and her trigger is buying apples at the grocery store. Where she once bought a dozen at a time for growing boys, she now buys three and still ends up often throwing one away.
For me it’s the back-to-school displays. It was always such a busy, happy, exciting time when my DS was little. I just miss those moments so much now that he’s grown. Seeing the crayolas, plastic lunch boxes and little Velcro-strapped running shoes puts a lump in my throat every time.