What happened next, however, sucked the wind out of my balloon.

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Minutes later I sat on the front stoop, and when the babysitter pushed the carriage around the corner, I felt a huge billowing of love that sat like a gigantic, soft helium balloon on my shoulders.

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For a brief moment, it was as if someone stuck a pin in a balloon and deflated my lovely day.

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On one of my final days in England, I made my way on blistered foot to the south bank of the Thames, past the site of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, to the place where my grandparents had made their balloon trip.

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That enormous, soft helium balloon got bigger and higher, until my love filled the skies.

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I've gone up in a hot-air balloon, traveled extensively, worked for good causes in my church and taught hundreds of children to read during my 23-plus-year career as a special education teacher for Massachusetts public schools.

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Or at least a little pin that extends so I can pop the balloon of other heads that get too close and crowd me (because my robot head needs his space, too).

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