Thanks Pop

Before you read this, you have to know that Mother's Day and Father's Day are not on my "Most Enjoyable Days of the Year" list. As stated before, is it because I don't love my mama? Nooooooooooo. Is it because I don't love my daddy? Noooooooooo. And that's precisely the point. I'm reminded very loudly on these days how much I DO love my mama and my daddy and sometimes - no, alot of times, it hurts kinda bad.

Because I get it now.

I get it, Pop, that you fussed because you worried. I get it that you only wanted all the best for me. You wanted me to make right choices because you loved me more than I realized, or at least I didn't realize it until I had children of my own. I get a whole lot now that I didn't get then.

Thanks, Pop (and Mama, too). Thanks for the silver (I guess it was chrome or something, but it was always silver in my mind) and white bicycle I got for Christmas when I was 9 years old. I don't know how Christmas managed to happen back then. I never thought about it then - I just knew it happened. I don't know how college managed to happen for me and my sister. I just know it happened. Now that I'm old, I don't know how alot of things happened back then. I just know they happened.

What I do know now that I didn't know then, is that you would never have spanked me. It was enough back then to think that you would have. And for the record, I realize now that, yes, I was REALLY, REALLY hard-headed. But thanks for loving me with all your heart anyway. The funny thing is, you loved all five of us with all your heart. Thanks, Pop. Thanks for all that you gave to us.





P.S. Even though I still miss you more than I can say, I can see you all up and down in your 3 boys and your grandsons, and now your great-grandsons and I love it.