Pray and Keep Gum In Your Pocket

In a few days my last natural child will get married thus officially ending our run as parents.A few weeks after that and Melody our last chosen daughter will marry. It is a time of mixed emotions for my wife and I.No doubt we are older and our energy levels aren't what they use to be.We do have some very special memories and our kids have all turned out well and yes we had a small part in that.I will miss being a parent like I still miss playing baseball.As we get older we have to give up things and we know from experience that nothing stays the same.A lifetime seems to have passed by quickly when we are in the last part of it.I have been blessed beyond measure .I have loved and have been loved.For some reason dogs and grand kids like me.I think always having gum-a trick I picked up from Grandmother -helps with grands.I don't worry about retirement.I figure God has taken good care of me so far.I am in good health aside from an aching right knee and a little trouble reading road signs. We are all marching toward the exits. My Grandmother use to tell me she was ready to go home she was just tired.I understand  that now.My Mom taught me a prayer and it goes ...if I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take.If I should live another day I pray the the Lord to guide my ways-AMEN

Going Home

181 Wade Street was a special place for me-next door to my Mom,Grandmother, Aunt Dorothy,and my cousin John Turner.A place that we gutted in 1983 after selling our first house in Shannon,Ga and my starting chiropractic school.We spent 12years there .Everyone is gone now except Mom and she turns 78 tomorrow-hard to believe.The last few weeks I have been painting and cleaning up.Getting ready for the next tenant to move in.Amazing the things we left behind in the attic.All my diplomas,and the last letter Grandmother wrote Jessica.The laundry room/study room still had the same Burgundy paint-it is now gray.The linoleum in the kitchen is still the same as are the cabinets-don't build things like they use to.Josh and I built the big deck on the back.I think I drove him toward a medical career that day.Jessica knocked her front teeth out on a rowing machine one Thanksgiving.Justin wore the siding off one side of the house throwing a tennis ball against the house.I built a $3000 basketball court and 6 months later God called us into foster care and away from Wade Street-that was Aug 1,1995.I grew up on Wade Street.Spent almost 42 years there.When I go there I don't just see houses I see Tommy and Sara and Nancy and Patsy and Buddy and John Turner I see Dad and Big John and I remember as a kid never wanting Sunday to end because all the cousins came over.I see Big Mama peeling peaches and Grandmother pouring us some coke and a stream of dogs following her car down the road as she got home from Elaine's.A bicycle passed her once.And I see John.He and I spent every waking moment together for 10 years.Those memories are why Wade Street will always be a part of me.Rarely will so much family live so close.It was a special time and the reason my blog is titled A Long Time Gone.