Graduation Day

 

It seems like an ordinary day today. I have the same old back ache that I wake up with every morning for the last few years. Sally is right there in bed beside me where she has been almost every night for 51 years. Curled up on her left side and breathing a soft tiny flutter of a sound. It must be an ordinary day. I look for the clock on the dresser and I think it says 5 something. I reach down to the floor beside the bed until my fingers close around my glasses. I always leave them on the floor after numerous times of knocking them off the nightstand while reaching for them. Now I can see, and it is 5:34. I have this arbitrary rule that if I wake up and time is earlier than 5:00 then I put my glasses back on the floor and try to go back to sleep. If it is 5:00 or later then I get up. So, I am up, and I start rummaging through my memory bank for any plans that I might have made for the day. This is when it hits me that this is no ordinary day.  This is the day that we will be celebrating Lucy’s graduation from high school. Yes, our firstborn grandchild has reached this important milestone. I guess that this milestone is a telling sign that before long I will have to admit that I’m getting old.

 “Hey Lucy!” before this day gets too busy, I have some things I want to say to you. First off, I feel very lucky to have been a part of all your growing up.  I remember the day I first got to hold you. I remember when we would play castle in a cardboard box or under the dining room table and you would want me to be your prince. We would play for hours at whatever game you made up.  You loved for me to scoot you around in a cardboard box until you fell over and we laughed until our bellies hurt. There was that summer in Port Aransas when we worked and worked until you finally crafted the art of the dive. There was the record snowfall in Victoria that marked your first Christmas. I see you up in the big oak in Geronimo looking down at me and saying “Poppy, I am a country girl now!” Chances are you probably don’t remember those things since you were so young, but I hold all of it and much more, close to my heart.

Graduation Day says to the world, I have been a successful student, I studied, I did the homework, I got up and went to school all those days and I accumulated a lot of basic knowledge. That is important stuff, but not a big deal in and of itself. But what is most important is that you made a difference in the lives of others. Go back and read what Bryce, Kailey and Carter had to say about you in those volleyball notes. Think about all the friends that came to your graduation party. Think about all those little notes sent back and forth between sisters and friends that was just that little pick me that you or they needed. Think about the times you made Mom cry with joy and Dad beam with pride. It is time to celebrate all of this and much more. I have to stop writing now as my eyes are getting a little wet. Love you!

A  few hours later: