A decorative plate that sat on the mantle in my childhood home read,
"God gave us memories so we might have roses in December."
Days like today are for memories.
The kind that result in tender (try-to-conceal-them) tears while I'm shopping with my pre-adolescent son for new school shoes and he leans over and whispers, "Thanks Mom...... a lot."
I don't know if he was thanking me for the shoes I (nearly mortgaged the house I don't even own and) bought or for the time I spent. But somehow, it didn't matter. Because, like I said. I (hid it but) I cried.
15 years ago today my heroic father lost his courageous battle with cancer.
There is so much about this man that I will never forget. And somehow today, I realized that even though I have begun to forget some things, they live again in everything I'm surrounded by. Mostly, in my children, my spouse, my extended family and the life we live because of what he left all of us.
As I sit here in the dark, surrounded by the hum and churn of the late-night laundry, a space heater in the cold room next door where my "baby" (almost four) sleeps, and listen to the soft (or not-so) sounds of my husband doing the same... I am in awe at life.
And I love it. Love them. Love what they gave us. What he left us. And who it made us.
I would seemingly
give anything to be granted a snippet of an interview with him now. Just 10 minutes. Or even two. I seek his approval. Always. So am just...curious. You know?
He is one of those "great ancestors" on the list now. So like the many who came before him.
I often ask myself, "What kind of ancestor are you, anyway?"
and am forever in pursuit of providing for my posterity
what he has for his.
I don't know if it was my mom or dad who taught me
the quickest way to get a drink out of the bathroom sink after brushing my teeth. Whoever took the picture though, could have been on their way to early 1980's blogging. This next picture screams
"blog me."
And when I see it, somehow I know...
our story's not over.
I don't know if it was my mom or dad who taught me the quickest way to get a drink out of the bathroom sink after brushing my teeth. Whoever took the picture though, could have been on their way to early 1980's blogging. This next picture screams "blog me."
In other news, my Douglas and I did go out to dinner before we went on our weekly grocery shopping date, if that counts. And, how romantic - we had Chinese Food at a local (packed!!) restaurant, and whilst waiting for our lo mein, read the placemat together and learned that in the Chinese Zodiac, he's a tiger, I'm a horse and we're a perfect match. How quaint. We waited all this time to have the Chinese reaffirm what we've known all this time. 
