Nico’s Amazing Journey

For almost thirty years, Kit and I have shared many memorable adventures across a wide range of geographies with our grandson Nico.  The first took place in the summer of 1997 in Madrid, Spain where he was born and lived until the summer before his last year of high school.  The occasion was his christening ceremony when he was eleven months old.  That day, he was wearing pale blue baby shoes and was already eager to take on the world.  From the get-go, Nico was the spitting image of his abuelo Kit at that early age, comfortably bonding with his American grandfather who held  him securely in one arm along with a giant stuffed bear and a green balloon just out of Nico’s reach.  

In the years that followed, he visited us numerous times in Missouri with his parents—our son Hayden and his mother Ana.  But the trip that changed his life was a visit to Boomerang Creek the week he celebrated his 13th birthday.  That was when Nico decided he was ready to explore his American side and, boy howdy, did he ever.

After that visit, I described him in the weekly column that I wrote for the Columbia Tribune.  

“Nico is a lean, multi-lingual package of boundless energy who loves American hamburgers, Froot Loops, Coco Puffs, whole milk, chocolate ice cream, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and movie popcorn with butter. A visit to a Sonic Drive-in led to a new food favorite—the American corn dog on a stick—proof positive of Nico’s direct culinary linkage to his American abuelo, Kit.

“This grandfather and grandson were true pals.  Driving to a summer matinee of Star Trek, Kit filled Nico in on the backstory, explaining that he had first watched Star Trek with Nico’s father Hayden and his Aunt Heidi when they were kids in Los Angeles.  By the time they’d reached the movie theater, Nico could align his fingers deftly into a Vulcan “V” and recite Spock speak like a true Trekkie—Live long and prosper.”

We kept our balance during that hot Missouri July by building breaks into those action-packed days.  There were lazy breakfasts on the porch, afternoon naps under ceiling fans while Nico wrote in the travel journal we gave him, and Kit’s nightly readings from Louis L’Amour’s Last of the Breed until Nico finally nodded off.

That week and on future visits, our grandson turned into a true country boy.  Singing John Denver songs.  Chopping and stacking firewood with his grandfather. Mowing the yard every chance he had with Kit’s sit-down John Deere mower. Wearing a pair of my old cowboy boots everywhere he went. And making his first pie crust and pumpkin pie. 

Looking back at Nico’s expansive and fluently expressed thoughts on international politics, soccer, spiders, Mustangs, technology and all that he found beautiful about Missouri the summer he turned 13 reminds me of what was about to happen in his life’s trajectory four years later when he flew west to Hood River, Oregon and finished his final year of high school.  After two years at Hood River Community College, he attended the University of Oregon, spent a year in Paris at Science Po (Paris Institute of Political Sciences), helped manage a statewide political campaign in Oregon, began a family and was accepted at Yale Law School.

Last week, with his parents, his uncle Nathan, his partner Mel and their son William, Nico earned a law degree at Yale and is now driving with his family from New Haven, CT to begin the next chapter in his extraordinary life in Portland, OR—the Pacific Northwest world where he has put down deep, forever roots since leaving Spain.

Congratulations Nico on your amazing journey. Your abuelo Kit and abuela Cathy love having been a part of your life for the past three decades.