Sharpe: The old comforter

My son asked me to make my special mac & cheese.

It’s his last weekend home before he moves to college, more than 650 miles away.

He hasn’t been around much all summer. He’s been busy working and partying, enjoying seemingly endless celebrations of high school graduation with his buddies that recently transitioned to goodbye hangouts before they each leave town.

Now it’s his turn to depart.

And he’s asking for the special mac & cheese, usually reserved for birthdays or other special events.

He wants it now for his last dinner home, at least for a while.

He hasn’t been overly engaged in packing or purchasing what he’s taking to college, but one of the items he’s asked for is an old comforter. It’s the same one that came as part of my dorm bedding set when I went off to college in 1995 somehow, it’s still in service after almost 30 years.

I tried to get rid of that comforter numerous times, yet it followed me from college to adulthood and around the country. When it traveled from Oklahoma to New York, it was used to wrap around items on my roof rack, protecting the top of my car from scratches during my epic cross-country drive. I figured it would need to be trashed after that journey, but all it needed was a few washes and a little mending in one corner.

That’s the blanket he wants to take for his dorm bed. The same trusted fabric that kept his mom warm through college and stayed with our family for many years, through many moves, would be protecting him now on his own cold college nights.

Meanwhile, I’ve been focused on pillowcases.

I got a great deal on Twin XL sheet sets weeks ago, but the pillows he’s taking to college are king-sized, and therefore too big for the standard pillowcase in the set. The brand makes matching king pillowcases, but they had been sold out online in the colors we needed.

What was I going to do? My dilemma morphed into an irrational obsession I was determined to send my son to school with two matching sheet sets that included the right size and color pillowcases.

Did it really matter to him? Probably not.

But it mattered to me. I know I can’t control much of what he’s been doing lately, and I’ll have even less influence from 650 miles away. But leaving him in his dorm with matching sheets and pillowcases would make things seem just a little more OK.

I searched the brand for other store options. I considered alternative colors and patterns. I refreshed the online retailer’s website day and night, desperate for an inventory status update that would show me what I wanted, back in stock. And then it miraculously did.

I wasn’t the only one having a college color coordination crisis.

One of my son’s female friends told him about how she got “in trouble” with her roommate for not coordinating her laundry hamper with her roommate’s throw pillows.

“Mom, can you believe these girls?” my son asked me in disbelief. I laughed along with him, though keenly aware that my younger daughter will head to college in a few years and likely have to worry about coordinated throw pillows.

About to enter the great college unknown, kids and parents both nervously wonder what’s next while seeking comfort in what we already know.

Special macaroni and cheese.

An old comforter.

Matching pillowcases.

Coordinated throw pillows.

We’re taking my son to college this week. I’ll be leaving him someplace new, and he’ll be on his own.

But before I say goodbye, I’ll make sure the bed is made with sheets, matching pillowcases and an old comforter. And the mac & cheese will be ready when he comes home.

Jennifer Sharpe is the director of communications at Oklahoma City Community College . Formerly the deputy editor of The Journal Record , her column “On the streets of Philadelphia” was the 2023 winner of the Oklahoma Press Association ONG Column Sweepstakes Award.

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