(A Repost from a couple years ago)
Fourth of July Memories:
Fourth of July Memories:
****
Hot summer night. Six kids in a Ford Falcon, one between Mom and Dad in the front seat and five in the back - going to Cumberland, then sitting on the car hood watching fireworks. After that, Queen City for ice cream cones.
Hot summer night. Six kids in a Ford Falcon, one between Mom and Dad in the front seat and five in the back - going to Cumberland, then sitting on the car hood watching fireworks. After that, Queen City for ice cream cones.
****
Taking my kids to the White Oaks parking lot and meeting friends there. Watching innocent faces light up as they watched the magic in the sky. Then... Dairy Queen for ice cream.
Taking my kids to the White Oaks parking lot and meeting friends there. Watching innocent faces light up as they watched the magic in the sky. Then... Dairy Queen for ice cream.
****
4th of July Picnics at my house with plenty of hamburgers, hotdogs, kids playing, adults laughing, and Mom asking, 'Can you get me more potato salad?'
4th of July Picnics at my house with plenty of hamburgers, hotdogs, kids playing, adults laughing, and Mom asking, 'Can you get me more potato salad?'
****
Standing in Mom's hospital room with tears streaming down my face and thinking back to the laughter inside that Ford Falcon from years earlier, while waiting for her to take her last breath... watching her slip slowly away from this world to the next... The sound of fireworks echoing beyond the hospital window.
Standing in Mom's hospital room with tears streaming down my face and thinking back to the laughter inside that Ford Falcon from years earlier, while waiting for her to take her last breath... watching her slip slowly away from this world to the next... The sound of fireworks echoing beyond the hospital window.
****
It's been eighteen years since her passing. But a July 4th does not come and go without me thinking of her, and missing her.