I smell Pepere

Sometimes, after my kids visit with their Pepere, I will hold them later in the day and smell my father-in-law's cologne on them. Over the years, I have become used to this.

But today, when no one was home but me, I smelled Pepere and obviously no child was in my arms. I had the smell of Pepere on my sweatshirt, a residual scent from holding my son and/or daughter when they were at church together this morning. (I was sleeping.)

This was confusing today, smelling this in the kids' absence. I began to feel that my father-in-law is truly omniscient, which is a little weird. I think every father-in-law at some point has visions of this, a guy maybe a little less intimidating than Robert DeNiro in "Meet the Parents", but I've been married now for almost nine years, and I think my father-in-law generally trusts me.

I should also mention here that my father-in-law is a very good guy, and it's not just because he paid when we played tennis yesterday.

I remember when we inherited my father-in-law's armoire when we upgraded our bedroom set a number of years ago - this was at our old house in Wethersfield - and for a few weeks afterwards I kept asking my wife, "What's that smell?... It smells like your dad." We quickly learned that the scent of my father-in-law's cologne had become part of the wood. Perhaps some spilled, like a whole bottle, one day.

So this scent has been around. I always know when kids come back from their Pepere's. Their hair, usually, smells like his cologne. It's quite endearing, actually, and a symbol of his love for them.

Today was just slightly more weird than usual. For a minute there, I thought I was smelling things. And then, in a quiet and confirming way, I realized that it was just the smell of my wife's father, and went back about my business, even keeping my sweatshirt, which smelled like him, on.