Emma has graduated!  Hooray!

We are very proud parents.

Emma looks pretty pleased as well.

Vancouver cooperated with a gorgeous day.  The UBC campus was beautiful. Happy grads and their even happier parents were everywhere.

However, a funny thing happened on the way to graduation….

On Tuesday, I was teaching a full-day workshop in Johannesburg.  On Thursday afternoon, Emma was graduating in Vancouver.  I finished my class Tuesday and rushed out to Tambo airport.  There was an accident on the highway to the airport, so we went a different route (the long route), passing a fire along the way.  I passed through the security and passport control and made my plane –  a nearly 12 hour flight to Heathrow. I made my way through passport control and hopped in a taxi to go home, where I then had 4 hours to unpack my suitcase for Jo’burg (where it was winter and I was working), re-pack my suitcase for Vancouver (where it is glorious and I am holiday-ing), and get back in a taxi to return to Heathrow.  On the way to the airport, our taxi was broadsided by a car in an intersection!  Both cars were totalled; the taxi’s wheel base was crumpled so we couldn’t even pull over off of the road.  Doug and I stood on the side of the road with our bags waiting for another taxi to come pick us up.

We made it to the airport (just!) and on to our plane, had the safety demo and were taxi-ing down the runway when the plane slowed down and detoured onto a quiet spot. We were then stuck on the tarmac for three hours because of a broken indicator on the plane. They re-booted the systems twice and then called in engineers to fix it. I had visions of Emma graduating without us.  Eventually, however, the bad luck ran out and we made it in time.

Knitters: please note this post’s sole knitting content.  Above, I am wearing my Cool Boots shawl.

Doug tells me to show you the following photo.  This is me at my graduation from Barnard in 1984.  No laughing allowed!

What do you do when your daughter graduates from university?  You do a happy dance, of course!