I just spent the last couple of days in San Antonio, Texas with my older sister, Kim, who made the 400 mile trek from Lubbock to come see me while I was in town for a convention. I was touch that she would make that drive for me. It's funny, I am closest to my sister Kellie, but my sister Kim and I are most alike. One thing my 3 sisters and I have in common is our love of laughter. It's a gift our parents gave us. Sometimes our laughter may seem inappropriate to others, like playing an April Fools joke on your sister calling in the middle of the night to tell her our grandmother was sleeping peacefully (we chickened out of saying she died) while our grandmother lay close to death. Humor is our coping mechanism. We learned to never take ourselves so seriously that we can't find the poetic humor in just about every situation. This humor came in handy as we found ourselves walking through San Antonio trying to follow the map (which you think a chief of police would know how to read) and finding ourselves lost in sticky humid weather. Actually, to tell you the truth, one time we we were looking for this restaurant called "Howl at the Moon" and after going blocks, stopping to read our map again every 50 feet or so, we stopped to reexamine our map and after 5 minutes of debate on a street corner, I looked at Kim and said, "Wouldn't it be funny if the restaurant was right in front of us?" Then we crossed the street and what do you know, it WAS right in front of us! We were literally 15 feet away.

Having one on one time with Kim allowed us to open up about all kinds of "life" stuff. I think anyone who knows our family intimately, wonders how we all turned out as good as we have. We are each grounded in strength and have found our way through life quite well. I'm really proud of who we have become. If you would have asked me 30 years ago what I thought our lives would look like today, I would have given you a completely different prediction. Never in my wildest imagination would I have conjoured up Kellie taking care of premature babies, Kim the Chief of Police, myself vested over 20 years in the same company leading large health care programs, and Kathy doing accouting for other people. We've each experienced detours along our way as we traveled our individual roads, but I think those detours and roadblocks are Gods way of helping us discover Him and who He wanted us to be. There is still a lot of road ahead of us and I'm sure there will be sharp curves and speed bumps that knock us off balance but I feel pretty confident that we will be able to stay on course, with echoes of laughter instead of conmplaints.

Left behind, but not forgotten. Well... at least not for too long anyway.

When I was about 9 or 10 years old my family moved from our big house at 1540 Lenox Drive (can't believe I still remember the address!) to a pink house over by Doctor's Hospital (both in Modesto, CA.) To make the move easier, my parents decided to send my older sisters and I to YMCA camp for a week. Because our camp weeks were back to back, my older sister Kim got to take the brand new sleeping bag that I got for my birthday to camp with her. I still haven't figured out how that really worked out, but I was younger than her, so it didn't matter at the time. Anyway... the week we were scheduled to move just happened to be my week away at camp, which meant, I was going to be coming home to our new house. Before I left for camp, my parents drove us to our new neighborhood and pointed out the pink house located right across the street from a big hospital.  


My week at camp went well, but when I came back from camp, my parents were so busy with the big move, they completely forgot to pick me up!  I remember the director of the YMCA coming out and asking if I wanted him to call my dad, who was a friend of his.  I said a desperate "Yes!" and in one quick instant was disheartened when he said, "do you have your new number yet?".   Now why on earth would anyone make sure I had a working phone number to call just in case?  One more spark of hope came when he asked if I knew where I lived.  I was so excited because I did know where I lived.  It was in a pink house next to a big hospital!  His reply to me was, "let me go get a couple chairs, this may be a while".  About 4-5 hours later, my mom pulled up in our station wagon with my sister's Kim and Kathy in tow.  My mom was a balling fool, crying, "I'm so sorry" in between her deep sobs.  I was so darn happy to be remembered at that point, that I don't really think I saw it as having been forgotten.


I'll never forget the grin on my sister Kim's face as she relished the scene playing out before her.  To add her own bit of drama, she turned to me and said, "you know your new sleeping bag?  Guess what??? It rolled of the top of the bus and down the side of a mountain"  I'm pretty sure just sat there dumbfounded for a bit.  My younger sister, Kathy, was sitting in the back seat with me looked at me with a smile that was bursting from ear to ear and said, "We got a dog why you were gone too!"  Seriously??? a dog too?  When we got to our new house, the dog ran up and introduced himself to my leg.  I wasn't very happy at that point, but my mom, ever the optimist, came in with a gift sure to bring a smile to my face.  It was my very own Fonzie (from Happy Days) latch hook rug.  Oh boy!!! How could I not perk up knowing I would have the luxury of pulling thousands of threads through a a vinyl net fabric until it forms a picture of my Happy Days hero.


Come on... admit it.  It's pretty funny now looking back.   Friends tell me all the time that I should write a book about growing up in my family, that it would be a number one seller on the comedy/drama list.   As crazy as it all sounds, and trust me there were plenty of crazy times, it helped me become the person I am today.  My parents may have been a little flaky because of the fumes which seemed to permeate from our bathroom wallpaper whenever their friends came over, but they instilled in each of us kids an admirable trait.  Laughter.  


This post is dedicated to my mom, because even though we hardly speak, I know she has not forgotten me, and to my dad, the music man.  There are so many songs that make me think of you. (I'll always be your S.A.K.) 


 I thank you both for enriching my life with music and words.  "House at Pooh Corner" or "Turn Around", I always think of you.