Today my mother would have turned 76 years old. She passed away suddenly four years ago – a reminder to anybody who’s paying attention that there are no guarantees in this life.
Like anybody whose life has touched another for that long, I have lived long enough myself to see Mama’s mental, emotional, and moral DNA flowing throughout my own and my sister’s life, as well as through the lives of her grandchildren and now seven (soon to be 9) great-grandchildren.
We had our points of disagreement, some of them quite loud. We also had hours of conversation – some of them way past bedtime. And like Abel in the Bible, I love the fact that long after her life here was over, she still speaks to me today.
Give her a chance, she’ll speak to you, too. Here, in no certain order, are the life lessons I learned from her. [click to continue…]
Randy is the president of a major water pump business located in Fort Worth, Texas. A few months ago he was on a Southwest Airlines flight and struck up a conversation with the lady sitting next to him. She was on her way home from a DFW visit to her daughter. A wedding shower trip, she said. As the conversation progressed, the lady somehow got to talking about her daughters and their love for the Atlanta Braves. For their sixteenth birthday, the one thing the twins wanted was to fly to Atlanta for a game. Then when the Braves were coming to Arlington a couple of years ago, it happened to be just before one of the girls’ wedding, so that didn’t work out.
And wouldn’t you know it? Here they were, an hour flight away, and again, they were here during the week of a the second twin’s wedding and the only dates they could go were taken up with wedding stuff.
Well, let’s just see, says Randy, as he pulls out a Baseball magazine and flips to the Rangers’ schedule. Actually, there was a way, and there was a day. Oh, and I have six season tickets to the Rangers Ballpark at Arlington, says he. He offered them as a wedding present.
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Today the convergence begins. People from across the country will start heading this way for my daughter’s wedding Saturday. And I’m feeling a bit like my masked friend here.
Come on in! If all goes well, the decorating will be finished, the yard cleared of New Mexico dust, the housework completed, and the shelves lined with food and drinks.
It matters not if you’re impressed, so long as you’re served. What’s ours is yours, and we’re your servants. Make yourself at home. Really.
And even if you find us peering out of a cardboard box, mi caja es su caja.