Groningen, A Story

“The town was paper, but the memories were not.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

Beberapa hari yang lalu, saya dan suami kembali ke Groningen, sebuah kota yang pernah kita sebut rumah untuk beberapa tahun. Sudut-sudutnya masih terasa familiar walaupun pembangunan demi pembangunan mengakibatkan bangunan-bangunan baru menyeruak di berbagai bagian kota.

It feels eerily like home, maybe because it was home, sometimes ago. 

Dalam tiga hari berkelindan dingin di Groningen, kami saling berpandangan berpikir bagaimana dahulu kami bisa menavigasi udara sedingin ini, dengan dua anak kecil dan ketidaktahuan yang menganga di mana-mana.

We survived somehow, and we are back in this city today to celebrate that survival. Life - and the city - turned and tossed us upside down but we survived. Today we hope to close one chapter in our book, and hopefully open up a new one. And as always with memories, everything is always sweeter after it happens, seperti kata Marquez,

“...the heart's memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.”

― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera