Empty Nest Syndrome and the Vegan Diet

My wife and I recently became "Empty Nest" parents for the second time. I don't really count the first time, because my son Andrew was away at trade school in Conneticut. He frequently came home on weekends, or my wife and I would visit with him from time to time. He was only in school for a year, then he was back.
This time may be permanent.
While we were taking our middle son, Ben, to grad school in Georgia, Andrew decided to move out again. Fine. No problem. A little emotional for us at first, but we adjusted quickly. For the first time in a long time, my wife and I were free again--really, just like when we were first married. We quickly began plotting how we were going to rearrange everything in our lives. We began cleaning and sorting through the rubbish and old clothes in closets and basement. I made several trips to donate old clothes, excessive winter coats, unworn hats and gloves--all the accumulated STUFF that was slowly building up over 25 years (24 of them with kids!). I began to see a parallel between our old life of eating meats, chickens, fattening sauces, and junk foods, and comparing them to our present vegan diet. Like the clothes and discarded cd's and books, and old comics, the old way of eating was not healthy and needed to be discarded. Occasionally, I stray from my diet, I try hard not too, because the benefits to me outweigh the negatives. Even trying to be a 80% vegan is better than nothing.
We realized over the past few months that even the boys were trying to eat healthier, Andrew is even trying to follow a vegan diet! I laughed to myself when he came over recently (a few days after moving out). My wife gave him the remaining old food items from the freezer for his non-vegan room mates to eat, plus a few of our vegan things. I'm imagining now, that all my bananas won't be gone in two days, and my almond milk won't be empty when I go to eat my cereal. When Donna makes some of her outstanding vegan cookies, maybe I'll get to eat the whole batch over three days, instead of seeing the boys wife them out in a few hours! WHEN Donna and I go shopping at Whole Foods, maybe the stuff will last more than 4 days!
Or my son will come back for "a visit," and Mom will have a baggie of cookies for him, and give him the bunch of bananas I just bought. Isn't that what good Moms and Dads do?
I think about these things a lot right now to keep from getting depressed about this stage in my life, a feeling of not being needed anymore, a feeling that my kids are not kids anymore, but adults starting their own life journeys. When I begin to get depressed, I always come back to the food, and how it unites us as human beings, but more importantly, as families. I think of the shared meals and laughs around the kitchen table, eating spaghetti and meatballs, dinners at Chuck E Cheese's, Papa Gino's, and Gregg's. All the places that mattered to the kids when they were young. But we've all come a long way. We eat differently now. Local foods are important, and moving away from unhealthy trends is probably the next stage in our lives as well as many others.
I recently read an article in Time magazine that stated that more and more people were living vegan or vegetarian lives during the week, but going back to steak, and eggs, and bacon on the weekends. This trend is astounding to me, because more and more people are seeing the benefits of a plant-based diet, over an animal one. Veganism is slowly turning from an extreme lifestyle habit, into a life choice for heath. That's why my wife and I do it, and my kids will hopefully do the same.
But for right now, we continue to clean, de-clutter, and re organize. I don't feel unwanted anymore--especially when my kids call me for cooking advice, or come over to visit. I just don't want to give away ALL my bananas!