Joyride

The spring is the season when I feature the best student work from my essay class at Atlantic Cape Community College. This week’s column is by Lauren Sweeney of Egg Harbor Township.
Turkey, Greece, and Austria are some of the stamps that are on my grandmother’s passport.
Lauren O’Mara was married with four kids, but that didn’t stop her from traveling the world. Often she would leave the children with her husband, George. It’s the break she needed from the family—after all she was a stay-at-home mom of four.
She lived in Northfield and was an active member of her church. Every Sunday, you could find her at the early mass with her husband and children. The kids all sang in the choir—something they only did to please their mother.
At least once a year, she would pack her bags, grab her passport, and hop on a plane and travel out of the U.S. She went to Egypt and got on a camel ride through the desert. She went to Austria to experience the “Sound of Music.”
Italy was her favorite place to travel. She went often, and each time she brought a little bit of Italy back to New Jersey. After all, she is 100 percent Italian, and her mother was born in Italy.
She traveled until she got sick with cancer. She told me while she was in the hospital one day that her dream was for me to travel the world like she did. I had been sick my first five years of life and now I had to make up for it.
That is something we both have in common now because I promised her I’d travel and see what the world has to offer. I had spent much of my childhood in and out of hospitals getting surgery, and now it was my chance to see the world.
I started traveling at age 10. I went on a cruise to the Bahamas and loved it. From that moment, I knew it was something that I would be doing for the rest of my life. My traveling got more adventurous as the years went on. I visited Puerto Rico and Canada.
I also have gained my grandmother’s sense of adventure—whether it is jet skiing, snorkeling, or zip lining.
My grandmother told me that I was meant to beat all the battles I’ve been through for a reason and that she would always travel with me. Every adventure I go on, I go with my grandma watching over me.
One day my passport will have more stamps in it than my grandmother’s — and I know she will be proud.
Keith Forrest is an assistant professor of communication at Atlantic Cape Community College. His late Mother Libby Demp Forrest Moore wrote the Joyride column for this newspaper for 20 years.