Relationships & Family

All for Keith

admin — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 06:35:00 -0500

Nothing will ever erase the memory of our last Sunday together.

Darrell, my husband, had to get ready for harvest, so my 11-year-old son, Keith, played "Dad" when it was time for church. Keith loved church. So much so that he said he wanted to be a minister when he grew up, though farming was in his blood.

"You look nice," he told me that morning—just like Darrell would have—when he came into the living room to get his Bible. "And you smell good too!"

Forever Songs

batch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:23:00 -0500

In October 2003 my son, Lance, lost his battle with neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer. He was 13 years old.

Family, friends and a support group all helped me deal with my grief, but sometimes the pain was just too much. The fall Lance had been dead two years, I was beyond solace. For days I fought back tears. One afternoon the house was so quiet I couldn't bear it. My sadness was heavy and suffocating. I felt like I was sinking in quicksand.

Re-discovered

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:23:25 -0500

The bulldozer drove back and forth over the mountain of photographs—several hundred thousand dollars' worth, more than a decade of my hard work. I stood at the Fort Myers, Florida, county dump, watching it get ground into the dirt. Was this all my whole life really added up to?

Away into the Sky

batch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:22:56 -0500

I lost the brightest thing in my life when my wife, Connie, died this year. She was warm, loving and cheerful. So much so that one Mother's Day I got her a bright yellow canary.

Connie named the bird Sunny. On gray days Sunny's yellow feathers brightened the room. Her chirps filled the house. Sometimes she pressed her face up to the cage to watch us like we watched her.

All Things Are Possible

batch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:22:54 -0500

The effects of Hurricane Katrina hit close to home. Thousands of evacuees were bused into Texas. When Houston shelters couldn't handle any more, busloads arrived here in San Antonio.

Like everyone who watched the disaster on TV, my heart broke for the victims. Some of them had not only lost their homes and all of their possessions. They'd lost track of friends and family, even children. It is unbearable to be separated from your child, even for that fleeting moment until you find him in the next grocery aisle or underneath a rack of clothes at the mall.

How Sweet the Sound

batch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:20:43 -0500

After the funeral that cold winter morning, my sons supported me as we walked back to the car, past the grave and the seemingly endless line of familiar faces.

My husband’s dead, I thought over and over, as though I couldn’t quite believe it was true. Behind me, a bagpiper we’d hired started to play. I suppose he’d been playing all through the service, but only at this moment was I aware of the song, “Amazing Grace.” The eerie, mournful sound of the bagpipes playing the hymn Red and I had both loved filled me with sadness.

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Battle Tested

jbloustein — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:42:36 -0600

I burrowed deeper into my sleeping bag. The concrete floor in the quarters I shared with three other Marine platoon commanders felt harder than usual.

The others had likely been up for hours, anxious to patrol the streets of Ramadi, Iraq, with their men. But I’d lain here until the last minute. I wished I’d never have to get out of bed. This room was the one place where I didn’t have to face my men. Where I didn’t have to make decisions that could cost them their lives.

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Life Is Sweet

mcherkezian — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:10:52 -0500

When tragedy struck Jessica Hagenbuch, she turned to candy—a candy business, that is.

In 2006 Jessica and her family suffered a terrible heartbreak: Her father passed away suddenly from a heart attack. Devastated, Jessica struggled to recover from the unexpected loss.

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Thanksgiving Promise

batch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:21:44 -0500

Our family needed to come together more than ever that fall. I decided to have Thanksgiving at my house.

I hadn't fixed a formal dinner in months, and I had a full set of white stoneware in my china cabinet just begging to be used: plates, salad plates, cups and saucers, creamer, sugar bowl, butter dish—the works. A week in advance, I made out my grocery list, including ingredients for my special fruit punch. It had been my granddaughter's favorite.

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Batteries Not Included

batch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:21:40 -0500

Merle was always coming up with ways to entertain our grandsons when they visited town. This time he put his hands on quite a contraption: a mechanical dog.

He loaded the batteries, and we tested it before the boys arrived. The dog walked and barked and moved its head. Merle pressed a button to make its tail spin like a propeller. You couldn't help but laugh.

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