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June 26, 2005 Summer is such a wonderful and carefree time for children. One of the joys of being a parent is watching your children run, play, and laugh with wanton abandon. Such play is one of the joys we lose as we become adults, and can only regain in brief respites when we watch, or better yet, join in on the fun with our kids. My two girls, Autumn 9, and Crystal 7, are truly priceless gifts from heaven. I frequently marvel at how loving, thoughtful, and giving they are; not only to my wife and me, but to just about anyone they encounter. Our elderly neighbor “Mr. Mike”, sadly, was diagnosed with liver cancer recently and spent a month in the hospital. The two girls, who often manage to charm and cajole the elderly gentleman into reading them stories while sitting on his porch swing, were genuinely upset and saddened by the news. As soon as he returned home, without a word from my wife and me, they got busy with the crayons making get well cards for him. One card said, “We love you Mr. Mike”, and another said with tear streak stick figures, “we are sad you were sick.” Another had a crude drawing of the three of them on the porch swing reading a story book and said, “We like it when you read us stories Mr. Mike. Thank you.” Naturally, the first day Mike sat out on his porch with his dog “Goldie” the girls (cards in hand) went to see him. The look on the face of this tired and sickly looking gentleman was beyond priceless. The color seemed to return to his face, albeit briefly, and his eyes became watery. A genuine tear streaked down his cheek, and a wry smile came to his face as he looked at me. The three of them sat on the porch swing that afternoon, the girls on either side of him with their heads lying on his shoulders as he proceed to read and comment at length on each card. I have to admit to getting a little choked up myself, for only a child can so innocently do such a genuinely wonderful thing. I wanted to capture my two precious girls in that moment, and keep them there forever, safe from the harm that the world will invariably thrust upon them as they move into adulthood in just a few short years. Saturday, June 25th was just another lazy summer day. The girls and I had a water gun battle (which I believe I lost as I got double teamed), and I ended up wetting them down with the garden hose (at their enthusiastic behest of course). Finally, it was time to go inside, dry off and eat the lunch my wife, Adele, had prepared. As Adele and I toweled off the kids, the TV played CNN in the background. The story of the hour was a horribly tragic one, for it seemed that three boys, Anibal "Juni" Cruz, 11; Daniel "Danny" Agosto, 6; and Jesstin "Manny" Pagan, 5 had been playing, climbed into the trunk of an abandoned car, got trapped and suffocated to death. They were found two days later, accidentally, by the father of one of the boys as he went searching in the trunk looking for jumper cables. This, of course required a shower of hugs and kisses for our girls, followed by a lecture as to why you should never climb into the trunk of a car, refrigerator, or anything else that could trap you and suffocate you. Now let me pause here to say that my seven year old is a bit of a drama queen. I frequently find myself both annoyed and amused at how she can take a minor inconvenience and turn it into a national tragedy. Minor cuts and scrapes become major wounds in dire need of medical attention from a trained professional. Crystal is very grounded however. Vampires, monsters, and other “scary” things don’t scare her… unless of course it’s real. For example: we were watching the weather channel one evening, and a news alert came on regarding a tornado watch in the Kansas area. Of course they began discussing safety measures in the event of a tornado, and showing footage of actual tornadoes. Finally, they showed a map of the possible afflicted area, to which my young scientist began studying with interest. Finally, she looked up at me, and in all seriousness asked, “Hey daddy, where are we on this map?” Of course I responded, “Honey, that’s very far away, we’re not on that map.” This seemed to comfort her somewhat, but I could still see the little gears turning in her head. To my amusement she then inquired, “um, daddy, do we have tornadoes like that around here?” Another time, the commercial for “Anaconda II” came on, and once again she got that concerned and inquisitive look on her face. “Hey Daddy” she called, “do we have snakes like that around here?” So you see it’s the real and possible real things that upset her. She could care less about fantasy things such as ghosts and goblins. Thus, as my wife and I lectured our two wonderful children about being careful, and how precious they were to us, and how much we loved them and couldn’t bear to loose either of them, my seven year old got that distressed, inquisitive look on her face. She hugged my wife and told her that she loved her mommy and would never do anything to hurt her. Then she burst into tears. At first I thought that Adele and I had gone too far, and transferred our fears to the sensitive little one a bit too much. I also thought that perhaps Crystal was playing to the drama just a bit as my nine year old was not similarly affected. Crystal shook a little, a sincere look of sadness overtaking her delicate little features, and tears streaked down her face. Finally, she let out such a pitiful wail of despair that my heart felt as if it would burst. Adele and I both blurted out, “Honey, its ok. Why are you crying? Mommy and Daddy aren’t mad at you; we love you and don’t want anything bad to happen to you!” “That’s not it” she cried through a stream of tears, “I’m just so sad for their mommies and daddies! What about their mommies and daddies?” So there it was, for up to that moment it was my sincere belief that children could not comprehend the love that a parent has for a child; at least not until they were grown and had children of their own. I admired her in that moment for such a mature bit of empathy and wisdom. Then tears streamed down MY face, as I hugged my precious little ones and thought of three happy little boys on a summer vacation “adventure” that so quickly and unexpectedly turned to tragedy. On the television, a picture of a father was shown; collapsed in the arms of a neighbor, the horror and pain of just finding his little boy dead taking all he had. Not long after, of course, my girls were all smiles and laughter. Children recover quickly, but the fears and misgivings of loving parents linger on. Meanwhile, the happy faces of three tragic little boys haunt the TV screen; stark reminders that each day with our children is a precious gift. ------------ Email Dave Wile: loudmouth@comcast.net Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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