21 Jan …….But She Was My Best Friend
Jack will turn 85 next week. This is the first birthday he will spend without Olivia since they were 9. They grew up across the street from each other in a rural farming community where shovelling “$&!!”, as Jack put it, was their expertise. Olivia was taller than him at his 9thbirthday party until his 16th! He pleads the short strand of DNA on his side and her love of vegetables worked against him. But boy were her baby blue eyes were magnets to his soul. He proposed to her after they both “graduated” grade 10 ~ each family needed them to work the respective farm and after-all, who really ever uses trigonometry?
At 18, they were married and had their first child. Five more quickly followed and they decided to call their family complete. Then she made his favourite rhubarb pie that day he came home for lunch. Their youngest was 12. She kept baking and three more children followed. That made nine children, five boys and 4 girls in a three bedroom home. They loved it! Time zones, careers and geography eventually spread the children apart but every year, without fail, all nine with spouses and grandchildren in tow returned for Olivia’s birthday opposed to Christmas, Easter etc. Dad wanted to always celebrate Mom.
He came two hours early for the visitation because “he and Olivia had a lot to talk about.” When his children arrived, they came in like a herd of fuzzy bunnies, cuddly kittens and loving lap dogs. Dad thinks he’s alone now…… he couldn’t be farther from it. Nine children with a concert of grandchildren and great grandchildren now are doing “rock, scissors, paper” challenge to see who can totally reconstruct their life to be close to the patriarch of all things love.
Sharing stories…..one amazing legacy at a time.
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