Sunday, June 21, 2015

Dear Mom .....

Did you know, when you chose to marry my dad all those years before I was born ..... that he would someday play "Alley Cat" on the piano, while I sang the "Meow" parts at the top of my five-year-old lungs?

Did you know he would someday let me sprinkle flour on his hands as he kneaded bread dough?

Did you know he would someday take me for long walks looking for ungeheuers and tell me stories of his childhood?   

Did you know he would read to me often ... introducing me to classics like Alice in Wonderland and Black Beauty?

Did you know he'd wash my hair every week in the kitchen sink and then try using Brylcreem in an attempt to calm my frizzy curls?

Did you know he would cook waffles for us on Saturday mornings, with coins baked inside?

Did you know that someday, he'd wake us up on weekends playing John Philip Sousa marching songs on the stereo?  Or holler my nickname across the grocery store to roust me out of the comic book section when it was time to leave?

Did you know that someday, the kids on our block would say I had the best dad because he'd take us to the park and treat us to black licorice?

Did you know he'd bake cakes with blue food coloring and scare my brother who thought it was mold?

Did you know he would someday get up early to drive me and my teenage friends to a before-school scripture study class and embarrass me by being so cheerful and asking everyone in the car what they had for breakfast?

Did you know that someday, he'd teach me to ski and later to drive a car, and that he'd travel 12 hours to take me to college, and 800 miles to be there when I got married?


Did you know that you would get sick ...... and die before my tenth birthday, and he would be left to raise me without you?

No, you probably didn't know that when you married him so many years ago.  But God knew.

And so He, and you, gave me a dad .... my dad.

Thank you.