Well, yesterday was Easter and my husband's birthday. Poor Kenny. This was probably the crummiest birthday ever for him. Within the last month we've lost a young girl who was my daughter's best friend and was truly like a member of the family to us, and 2 weeks ago, we lost a friend who was like a brother to us. But 30 years ago today I gave him a GREAT present. He already had a little girl to love and now I'd given him his boy!
And now... it's the 30th birthday of my youngest child, Dale. This is a big year for him. Next month he'll be getting married, and within the next year, it's quite likely he'll have a child of his own.
How did we get this old? Seems like just the other day I was in the hospital with this little bundle of baby boy. Two days after his birth I was holding him and crying... It was Easter, and I was missing his 3-year old sister, Rachel, and feeling very left out. She was being visited by the Easter Bunny without her Mommy! That evening, her Daddy brought her in to visit her new brother for the first time. She was all dressed up in her little yellow Easter dress and was so excited about her basket, and her candy eggs... and to top it all off... there he was! Her new little brother.
She told me that I should go home with them. "You don't need to stay here... you come home NOW with mine-Dale". When they left, I sat there hugging my little boy and wept for a couple of hours... feeling guilty about not being there for my daughter.
Back then, they would come around and collect the babies and bring them back to the nursery for the night. Before they took him, I decided to change his diaper and he peed all over me, immediately pulling me out of this sad funk I was in and giving me a chance to laugh.
I guess we're pretty lucky. In spite of the sadness in our lives, then and now, our kids can always give us something to lift our spirits. Dale dragged me out of that deep funk of self-pity back then, and Rachel has given us two little grandchildren to keep us laughing through the sad times now. Just sitting down to chat with either of those two little cherubs is enough to brighten the worst day.
Yup... life does go on.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Jon
I lost a terrific friend the other day. They found him lying on the floor of his apartment the morning after he died. He was supposed to come over and do his laundry that night, but when he didn't come, I wasn't concerned. He's often fallen asleep in front of his computer and missed a dinner visit, or a laundry visit.
I've been so caught up with my own life, that I never gave his life a thought that night. SHOULD I feel guilty for not wondering where he was? Probably not. DO I feel guilty? Absolutely! I keep thinking that while I was at work that day, Jon was lying there on the floor. When I drove home and glanced down his road to see if his car was in the yard, Jon was lying there on the floor. While I was laughing and playing with my grandchildren, while I sat and watched TV and chatted with my husband, and when I went to sleep that night, Jon was lying there on the floor. There's nothing I could've done to change it, but it seems so unfair that I was going about my life as usual, not knowing that his had ended.
I'm sure he's still hanging around in that other realm somewhere, and he's thinking how foolish it is for me to be feeling so badly about things I couldn't have known about or even imagined. He's probably slinging all those smart-assed comments at me that he always did. He was always good for a laugh... our Jonathan.
I've known Jon for most of my adult life. It's hard to imagine what it's going to be like without his silly commentary, his little bits of information about every song on the radio, his computer help, and his daily weather reports and warnings of road conditions.
Jon had one passion... photography. His pictures grace the walls of every store in town. I am so grateful that Vermont Life published his work before he died. This was the validation he had been waiting for and I've never seen him as excited as the day that letter came! He carried it around with him and showed it to everyone in town. And, OH MY GOD... when the magazine hit the newstands... it was definitely his proudest moment.
The people in Richford are a little richer because Jon was a part of their lives. I hope his family takes comfort in knowing how much he was loved and will be missed.
I've been so caught up with my own life, that I never gave his life a thought that night. SHOULD I feel guilty for not wondering where he was? Probably not. DO I feel guilty? Absolutely! I keep thinking that while I was at work that day, Jon was lying there on the floor. When I drove home and glanced down his road to see if his car was in the yard, Jon was lying there on the floor. While I was laughing and playing with my grandchildren, while I sat and watched TV and chatted with my husband, and when I went to sleep that night, Jon was lying there on the floor. There's nothing I could've done to change it, but it seems so unfair that I was going about my life as usual, not knowing that his had ended.
I'm sure he's still hanging around in that other realm somewhere, and he's thinking how foolish it is for me to be feeling so badly about things I couldn't have known about or even imagined. He's probably slinging all those smart-assed comments at me that he always did. He was always good for a laugh... our Jonathan.
I've known Jon for most of my adult life. It's hard to imagine what it's going to be like without his silly commentary, his little bits of information about every song on the radio, his computer help, and his daily weather reports and warnings of road conditions.
Jon had one passion... photography. His pictures grace the walls of every store in town. I am so grateful that Vermont Life published his work before he died. This was the validation he had been waiting for and I've never seen him as excited as the day that letter came! He carried it around with him and showed it to everyone in town. And, OH MY GOD... when the magazine hit the newstands... it was definitely his proudest moment.
The people in Richford are a little richer because Jon was a part of their lives. I hope his family takes comfort in knowing how much he was loved and will be missed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)