Parental Memories are Alive

This past weekend I went to Bloomington to see a John Mellencamp concert with a friend (KG) and her parents. Woo Hoo the concert was super super AWESOME!! Bloomington is about two hours from my house so KG parents invited us (me) to stay the night at their wonderful house in the country. This isn’t really part of my story but I would like to add that the view from the guest room was spectacular. Three of the walls were windows and none of them had curtains or shades. So the sun was very bright about 9am and it glistened off of the trees and the leaves on the ground. Later in the morning there was also several deer spotted in the yard.

Spending so much time with KG parents made me think of my deceased parents and feel a bit sad that they are both gone. I don't often think of my parents or the fun times spent with them but that has been on the forefront of my mind since I have come home. Because my parents have been gone for so long I am used to life without them and I often forget the “normal” things that parents do for the adult children they love.

Dad and his little brother Jim when they were young men.

There were several small things that happened that made me wish they were still here. One of them happened on Sunday morning. I was sitting on the couch watching a pre-football TV show and discussing football with KG dad. Honestly, I have just a tiny bit of football knowledge in my head and it was a short discussion. But it made me remember how much my dad LOVED football and how he would have relished sitting on the couch talking about that with me. He would have enjoyed seeing me take an interest in something that he liked as well as explaining the mundane details to me.

Doesn't he look fierce!

Another simple example was on Saturday night before the concert. We all went out to eat and the dad insisted on paying for my meal. I tried to pay but he wouldn’t have it. That is such a parent thing to do and it was nice to have someone pay for my meal as that rarely happens (I said rarely Lou…I am very thankful you took me out to the Melting Pot for my birthday).

Typical Mom with the permed hair and striped polo.  Yikes...do I dress like her?

I think some of these feeling started about a month ago when I stayed with Ems parents for the Great Pumpkin Metric weekend. One of the evenings we were there all of us sat around the kitchen table and played Mexican Train Domino's. I never played Domino's with my parents but some of the best memories of my parents included my mom, dad and I playing cards for hours. Apparently, my social life was much slower then and we spent many many evenings eating wings and playing Spades. Those are the memories that make me happy.

I liked seeing how each set of parents try to still take care of their respective daughters in small ways. They are grown women and treated as such but you can see how the parents love their daughters and want the best for them. These “normal” family times gave me many warm and fuzzies.

I spent about an hour going through many old photo albums and I couldn’t find one single picture of my mom, dad and I playing cards. I am sad that activity was never immortalized. However, I have included one of my favorite pictures of my dad, brother and I when I was a "sweet" little girl.

Look look....I am wearing a dress.

 ***I worked on this post on three separate occasions and each time there may have been liquid leaking out of my eyes.