Mary's Heartbeats

I can't come to the end of this month and not remember my Dad. His birthday always arrived on the 28th of the month. I remember the fun I had with him on his last one of 92 years. I had purposely searched for new casual shirts for him that he could button up the front. The pull-over-polo-like shirts had become more of a bother for him and difficult to put over his head. He needed something simpler. So he beamed when he opened up the bag of brand new shirts I brought him. I made him model each one and he happily obliged as I snapped away with my camera, capturing his playful mood. There was no one like my Daddio . . . It's hard to believe, even though it has already been four years, that those days are just memories. Many a day, I have wished to have one more conversation with my Dad. I think that's why I find myself attending a small traditional church service in which old hymns are sung for that is where I hear my Dad still singing in my ear. But I also hear my ...

It doesn't exactly feel like Spring. The week brought cold rains and a bounty of snow to the nearby mountain tops. My garden flowers are doing their best to bloom but still crave warm sun. Nature lives in the present and always seems to thrive no matter whatever the weather brings. I am discovering that the secret in life is to appreciate each day that I am given. I must truly value time and every present moment. I have usually been a person who tends to look ahead at tomorrow or dwells in what could or should have been in the past. Either view can be myopic and yet, joy awaits me now, today. . . Perhaps, that is why I have thoroughly enjoyed the days this month of renewing several of my friendships. I have a treasure store of girl friends that have blessed me throughout the years. When we get together it's as if there's no lapse between the last time that we met. The laughter, the stories, the burdens that we share bind our hearts much closer, as if all that were a ...

"Mary, help! Mary, come get me!" I quickly ran from the kitchen to find my dear Mom Ruth smushed on the floor in between the toilet and bathtub. Oh, no, my precious Mom had fallen! Frantically, I mustered strength to pick her up. I breathed a prayer of relief that she only suffered bruising without any fractures. She has already had her share of breaks from previous falls. I gently cleaned her up and safely returned her back to her apartment that evening. On my way home, I couldn't help but think that someday when I'm 92 years old, I hope that I'll have someone who will come running and pick me up when I teeter and fall . . . But all that is now a memory. From that fall, Mom had more difficult days which ended her up in the hospital, then the care center, and finally into a new assisted living apartment. Too many changes for one so fragile, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally also. I heard her complete frustration and deeply felt her exhaus...

It was a night of introduction and getting to know classmates, otherwise known as The Freshmen Reception. Multiple tables crowded the small cafeteria, and I sat with my Dad, who also greeted us as one of the Professors. The two of them walked over to our table with the warmest smiles. They were sisters with contagious fun and laughter, and soon our table sparked with joyful conversation. Right away, I had a hunch that we would be good friends that year. But the season for our time together was only that one year. . . Yet, that year formed a foundation for friendship throughout time and even decades. Our lives have traveled diverse and different paths, but there have always been those times of intersection. Times for meeting one another and picking up right up where we had left our relationship before. More and more I find myself relishing these friendships. I'll never forget how comforting it was to have this special friend right by my side when I had to bury my father...