Life is Good

Well, I haven't driven Jean completely out of her mind, yet, but I am still working on it. After all, she's the one who decided she needed her own house and had the audacity to want to remove my grandchildren from my house. I consider it justifiable war, now.

Did I say anything when the State made Aiden start school? Well, okay, I said a lot, but I didn't blow up the bus or anything. I should get some consideration for that. Nina is fun but she's not much use at building forts in the Lilac bushes or fighting off the giant triangles or being superman.

Anyway, I called this post "Life is Good" because yesterday my Father-in-law was admitted to the hospital, and I've been reflecting on life a lot since then--not that life is good because my Father-in-law is sick, just that he has enjoyed life so much.

He's eighty two and his kidneys are failing, so I'm worried that this might be the penultimate crisis, the last but one, the one being death, of course.

It is very hard to lose someone who has been so much a part of the fabric of your life, so much a part of the geography of your heart. If you asked anyone to describe him with one word, it would be happy. Everyone says he is the happiest person they ever knew, happy in all circumstances, all the time.

And they are right. He has never been afraid to try anything, the worst thing that could happen, he used to tell me, was that you might fail, and who cared about that? If you failed, you could go try the next thing, and the next until you found a thing that worked for you.

He was never worried about what the neighbors would think about his successes or failures, I'm pretty sure he has always been secure enough not to care about any one's opinion but his and God's. I admire that.

He wound up being the richest man I have ever known. And no, not in dollars.

He is the richest man in the world because everybody loves him. The most amazing number of people called him "Dad" over the years. He is a plain person but there was always room at his table for one more. Always a way to stretch the house to accommodate one more, and always room in his heart for one more.

He wouldn't hesitate to put you to work, or to give you the rough side of his tongue now and then if you needed it. But he's never turn you out, either. He drank a little more beer than he should have, maybe, but he never hurt anyone by doing that, and he really didn't ask for much which may be why God poured out such abundance on him.

His children are devoted to him, his grandchildren love him, his great grandchildren pester him mercilessly and people are always dropping in to see him from all the places you could ever imagine.

He has the kindest heart and the sweetest smile this side of heaven. The world needs that smile, it will be a much colder and emptier place without it, and I hope I don't have to do without it just yet.

I could tell you all the things I know about him, but that would take too long. So I will leave you with just one.

When I was very small I greatly admired horses, my mother was not all that crazy about them herself and I think she wasn't too anxious to have me tackle any (and knowing me the way I do I can entirely see why she felt that way) but one of my happiest memories is Uncle Clyde putting me on old Duggan--quite possibly the most placid horse that ever lived--and letting me ride him around and around and around the pasture no matter how long it took until I was completely satisfied and all horsied out.

Not everyone was delighted when Jimmy and I finally said screw public opinion and got married, but it was a good day when my favorite Uncle became my best Father-in-law and nobody was happier than he was when we arrived home from Tennessee and he was the first person to proudly kiss the bride.

I shouldn't have been surprised, he had welcomed me to his home all my life, welcoming me as a daughter was pretty much just the next natural step, I'm sure. No one is as precious as my own father, but it is very nice to see the men I love best in the world gathered together at a table and know that not only is my heart there, but my blood, too.

I have been blessed.