Union Avenue 50 Year Reunion

The gauntlet's been thrown.  I am musing a 50 year Union Avenue Reunion.

It wasn't a perfect beach day, but it was a beach day.  And to Domenick, any day spent on the beach was a perfect beach day.

Dom didn't get to see the beach this year, except in the eyes and sounds and smells of those of us around him.  It seems when someone loses that one thing, the one thing they love beyond all else, they lose their will to continue.  It happened with my mother, as she descended into blindness, and it happened to Dom when he could no longer get to the beach.

I first met Dom, appropriately, on Pompano Beach in Manasquan.  In those years, the early years, Dom would see us approach and jump up to meet us; to help us carry our paraphanelia onto the beach.  He'd be sitting right next to the bulkhead; his cooler hanging on it.  Often there'd be surprises hidden in his cooler....like Mike's mom's purse, Domenick's cooler was a secret place of hidden treasures.  Eggplant sandwiches...tomatoes from his garden....Wawa lemonade.  And what he had, he shared.  Especially if he liked you.  Then, he'd make your favorites.  Like stuffed olives!

As the years flew by, and our lives changed, Dom's role in our lives changed as well.  When David arrived home from Korea, he became Beach Grandpa, Grandpa Dom, and the love affair between David and Dom began.  In our family, we aren't bound by blood, and no Grandpa and Grandson could have loved each other more than David and GPa Dom.  We'd get to the beach, and GPa would bound up to meet us.  Sometimes to carry the chairs....more often to get David.  Perhaps Dom's heart went a little bad watching as David grew fearless of the waves, each year venturing further and further.

Somehow, things changed over these past few years.  Little changes at first.  Dom stopped going into the water...one or the other of the beach friends would help him on and off the beach...he couldn't get onto Pompano any longer, but instead sat at the inlet...then last year....he couldn't get onto the beach at all, but would sit in the gazebo at the inlet and enjoy the beach that way.  This year, he wasn't able to get to the gazebo. 

Yesterday, wasn't a perfect beach day, but it was a day on the beach, and as everyone knows, any day spent on the beach is a perfect beach day.

Domenick.  We love you.  We miss you.  But we know, where you are, you're enjoying a string of perfect beach days.  Rest peacefully, dear friend.

Thank you for the gift of you in our lives.

Father's Day

The first time he did it, I was surprised.  Mother's Day mail, and I found a card from David.  His return address, his name signed in a scribbled hand.  It arrived on the same day the card from my dad did.  I smiled at the card; at the thought.

Every year thereafter, and every special event, my birthday, Valentine's day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, there'd be two cards waiting; one from David, and always, received on the same day, the one from my dad.

Dad missed Mother's Day this year.  He wasn't well enough to get out for cards.  He called to wish me well.  And the only card from David was the one on the kitchen table.

Yesterday, I went to the mailbox, and there were two cards waiting for Michael....one from David and one from my Dad.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's in my life, but especially to MY Dad.

Things that make me smile...part 2

Our annual holiday photo, once again,  shot by cariellen.  Inside:

Happy New Year....and all that jazz.

Things that make me smile...part 1

David's Art Work

French Kitty

Mother's Day...Redux

The call came on a Tuesday.  That which we had waited for, our match, our son.  At the meeting with our social worker, we got this photo, and I lost my heart to you.  For months, I carried you with me everywhere I went.  So close to you, yet still so far away.

Tuesday, May 4, 1999.  The call came.  You were to arrive, in Philadelphia in one week.  One week!  One week and I'd hold my beautiful boy.

Tuesday, May 11...It was a day unremarkable to most.  But to me, it was Mother's Day.

Your plane was scheduled to arrive at 7:17, PM.  You remember, David, why I will always remember that exact time?  I told you of it this morning...your connection to my father, to your grandfather.

The plane landed...and everyone... everyone could sense the anticipation.  Coming off the plane people told me of the beautiful boy, the boy who didn't cry, the boy who was waiting so patiently to meet his forever family.

I'd waited so long, yet those last few minutes, those last seconds felt interminable.

Finally, the last of the passengers deplaned and the babies came.  Two pinks, girls, followed by 2 blues.  Daddy says he didn't know you at first, but I knew you the moment I saw you.  I'd carried you in my heart forever.  Your escort, the beautiful nameless woman who brought you safely to us, seemed reluctant to let you go.  'Good baby' she said, as she finally relinquished you to me.

Today, David, is a day, always will be a day, wrought with emotion.  As I waited on this side of the globe, another woman gave me the greatest gift of my life.  The gift of you.  I take time today to honor her, to revere her, as I do throughout the year.

But mostly, David, today is about you, and how you turned Daddy and me into a family.  Forever.  I love you two times.

on Mother's Day....

today....I think of a woman....and I thank her for making this day possible for me...i think of another...and i thank her for the gift of my life...the bittersweet of Mother's Day....