It is Thursday morning. I think we made it through the storm. I looked out the back door, out the front. All seems peaceful now, I went to bed at 10:30. The lightening flashing, the thunder rolling. I no more got settled when the storm warning went off. No way am I getting back up I thought. I just closed my eyes and listened to the rain. I was still here when I woke at three. I have the door open and everything smells nice and clean . Its still dark and I haven't seen if my chair with the umbrella has blown away like a sitting balloon. I should have at least put the umbrella down.
I was talking to a friend yesterday evening. Telling her how I had not wrote my Memorial Day Blog till yesterday. As I went through the names which included her Mothers. My heart sank. I could not believe what I had done. I had not included Bobby. I have not felt this bad about anything for a long time. Bobby if somewhere you are watching, please try to read my Blog today.
Robert Everett left this life in 1988 at the age of twenty-nine years. I have wrote about Bobby on my Blog before. Bob was a gentle soul and loved by many people. I even wrote a poem for him, which I included in the Blog the day I wrote about him. But to leave him out of the list of people who left their mark on my heart was unforgivable on my part.
In fact just the other day I was remembering something that happened when Bobby and Billie was about three. I lived in an apartment that was the upper floor of an old house. In the bathroom there was a platform where the stool sat. When you went to the bathroom it was like being on a throne. The two little kids loved it. There was a slide lock on the door. Mom, Dix and the kids were there one afternoon. They went into the bathroom to play, running up and down the steps to the throne. Somehow they got the lock slid into place. They were both very short, how they did it we never knew. But however they did it they couldn't get it undone. There was general panic. Upstairs, nobody around there with a very tall ladder. Bobby bless his heart sobbed. He felt he was going to be stuck in the bathroom for ever. Billie consoled him in her matter of fact way she still possesses to this day. "We'll get out Bobby," she said, "Don't cry." The crying become louder. We talked through the door. "Stretch ," Mom kept telling Billie. The lock was up very high. "Stretch your fingers up and slide." Mom coaxed. Finally after what seemed like hours but of course was not. We heard the sliding of the lock. The sobbing stopped. The door flew open and they emerged into the midst of, "Don't ever do that again." Bobby was smiling, fears forgotten. He had a adventure. Oh those two. They had several ad ventures together. But I will always remember their bathroom one.
So Bobby please forgive the sudden lapse of memory. You have left in us a empty spot. I for one know that your leaving left a spot in Billie's and she will always remember. Always.
Nancy and I spoke of Butch and Robin yesterday. Leon Evan Eugene was born in 1956. He left this world in 1976 at only twenty years old. A tragic death and a tragic loss. Butch played the piano beautifully. He never had a lesson. He was funny, caring and so talented. I have wondered if only he had lived what he might have accomplished. You were loved Butch and still are carried in the hearts of all of us who cared.
Robin Lynn Doty died in 1964. Only a baby. It was Dub and Nancy's first girl. as they already had three boys. Robin was a beautiful baby. They were all so proud of her. They were living out of town and had come down for the weekend. My Mother watched her so they could go out with Bud and Dixie. Mom said she was such a good baby that night. She woke when Nancy came to get her, smiled at her Momma. They put her in bed with them, Nancy and Dub, and sometime in the night she slipped away. "SIDS." A terrible condition that has claimed many children's life's. It was a blow that neither Nancy or Dub truly ever recovered. Oh they went on but I know they never got over it. I wonder sometimes how Nancy has kept any strain of sanity after losing two children. I never could I don't believe.
So for our lost children and young people who graced our life's and made us smile. We loved you all. I think of all three and wonder what the years would have held for them. We will never know. How can I stress enough how important it is to live your life everyday to the fullest. Jump off that porch and run with the big dogs. Do it for all those who never got the chance. Two days of memorials. In writing this I have had memories flashing back to me. Bobby smiling. His jeans with the patch on the seat. Butch on the panino playing "Autumn Leafs." Once again today I have to say, "Thanks for the memories."
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