Make a List of Everything You Want.....

When I was in junior high school, my dad told me one Christmas to make a list of what I wanted. I thought I would give him plenty of choices, so I filled an entire notebook page. When Christmas came, he had bought me everything on that list—down to the last detail. Boy, did my mother get mad, but I was overjoyed. One thing he bought me that I still have is a ring with my birthstone—a white sapphire with two diamonds in a white 14 karat gold setting. It’s still as pretty today as it was then. We didn’t have a car until I was in high school. My dad rode the bus to town every Saturday. He always bought me a book. He knew I loved mysteries and it was always a Nancy Drew or Trixie Beldon mystery. Back then they were only 50 cents, but compared to today I’m sure that was a lot of money. I had a lot of pen pals, close to a hundred, and one day he came home and told me that I would need to cut down my list a lot. Stamps had gone up to 3 cents. I’m really telling my age now. I started thinking about my dad because three years ago he died on December 21. He had a stroke on December 10 and was paralyzed on his left side, couldn’t talk, drink, or eat. He laid like that until he died. It was a terrible thing to watch him die. He had opted to not have any artificial feeding devices. Before he died, I held his hand and thanked him for always being there for me. My mother was the one who disciplined me, and my dad was my defender. I thanked him for rubbing my legs when they hurt. I thanked him for doing my “chores” when I got sick. My mother worked from 3 to 11 each day and my dad worked from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., so I was with my dad a lot. I remember one time when I was playing outside with my tricycle and my little red wagon and my dad was sitting on the porch watching me. He was sitting in a straight backed chair leaning back against the wall. I kept begging him to take me somewhere. I can’t remember where. He finally gave in and when we came back a man had had a heart attack and his car ran into the side of the porch where he had been sitting and across the sidewalk where my tricycle and wagon were. The car had demolished everything. I guess we were supposed to keep on living. When I stood there holding his hand and talking to him, the tears rolled down his face, he couldn’t say a word. When I finished, Christi took his hand and told him some thank you’s also. I’ve been going through some videos and on them were my mother, dad, and Charles in healthier times. It was so good to see and hear them again. It just doesn’t help fill this hole I have inside of missing them. Hug your family and tell them how much you love them. Christmas isn’t all about things, it’s being with family and friends and celebrating the real reason for Christmas, the birth of Jesus. DR 12/18/14