I hear you sir! :)

Since I was a little girl my Paw Paw always had this little poem/rhyme he would say every year around this time.  Eventually I memorized it along with some of my other cousins and would just chime right in when he started reciting it or sometimes I would start and he would chime in. By the time I was older, we would say it regardless of what time of the year it was...it was just something to say during a Braves game when they were losing or any other time you needed a guaranteed smile. I can even remember saying it while he was in the hospital and at home with Hospice, no matter how little strength he had, he could get those words out and a smile. It was like he was proud because he was the one I learned it from and I am sure he knew it was a guaranteed smile too which is why he was certain to gain enough strength and composure to recite even days before he passed away. I will never forget the last time we said it together in person. I am not really a person who cries - I will at a movie or a TV show but in real life situations I am too busy trying to fix them to stop and cry about them but on this day I cried, like really cried. I remember saying, "Paw Paw please don't let that be the last time we say that" and hearing myself say that and in a way admitting to myself this was the last time made me burst into tears and I just laid my head in his lap and cried like baby for the first time ever in front him about him being sick.
Everytime, without fail, no matter who started it first he would smile the biggest smile and say, "You like that don't you? I can't believe you always remembered that." Sometimes he would marvel at the fact that, out of all of the things he ever taught me for that to stick out in my head means that I have a big heart because I understand everyone can't give and I still want God to bless them. I laugh through my tears while typing this because that is SO him....taking a simple nursery rhyme and over analyzing and applying it to my life. I guess I get it honest huh?!
This morning as I first stepped outside to take Miss Costa out this rhyme came to mind and for a few seconds every thought in my head that pertained to my "to do list" for today just stopped and all I could hear along with my voice was his, for just a few splendid seconds I got see him smile and hear him say,  "You like that don't you? I can't believe you always remembered that." when we were finished.
He has been gone for seven months and sometimes it feels like forever ago and sometimes it feels like yesterday but no matter what the calendar says or how my heart feels I will take times like this morning anytime I can get them!

Christmas Is Comin'
Christmas is comin', the turkey is gettin' fat!
Please put a nickel in the old man's hat!
If ya ain't got a nickel, a 'penny will do!
If ya ain't got a penny, well then God bless you!




I am still squeezing Paw-Paw--Love you!!



xoxo,
Faith