Signs, etc

"to have and to hold from this day forward,

for better or worse, richer or poorer in sickness and in health

to love and to cherish 'til death us do part"

June 3, 1941

Honolulu, HA

On this day in 1941 my parents were married. If they were still living they would be celebrating 70 years of marriage. Today I'm grateful for those two people and the home, however dysfunctional it may have been at times, they made for my sisters and me. No matter what happened in our lives (or theirs) there was always a place to come home to, to kick off my shoes at the door and to grab a Little Debbie. It makes me smile to think of the two young people who started off on that unknown journey with hopes and dreams and love in their eyes. Oh sure it makes me sad too, but I'm making a Smile list not a Cry Baby list.

June 3, 2001

60th Wedding Anniversary

Jacksonville, FL

At the risk of making it sound like I believe the Great Sign Maker in the Sky has nothing else to do but shatter my days with hints, I wonder why else I would have seen this when walking through the Publix parking lot.

To you it probably looks like a regular old license plate. To me it says "OKI" loud and clear and Oki says "Daddy" and Daddy says "Hi girl, I love you." *

My father was on the wrestling team at the Naval Academy. When he and some classmates set foot on Hawaii for their first tour of duty, they saw billboards advertising a pretty famous sumo wrestler - Oki somebody. Or somebody Oki. Regardless, he was big as Sumo wrestlers are and I'm sure after a couple of cocktails it seemed quite hilarious to tag my Dad with that nickname even though he wasn't Japanese, wasn't big and I'm guessing didn't know the first thing about sumo wrestling.Funny or not, the name Oki stuck 'til the very end of his life. I don't think I ever heard my mother call him anything else.

So even though I feel like there is a mack truck sitting on my chest and my throat is on fire I had to smile when I saw the license plate. Hi Dad, I whispered to myself, give mom a hug for me. More and more I'm beginning to believe it's true what they say about your loved one(s) never leaving you. If I keep my eyes and ears and heart open, there they are.

Today I'm also grateful for the fact that I was able to get an appointment with my doctor at the last minute, and that there are antibiotics that can attack the bug in my chest. I can also say it made me smile to see the numbers on the scale go down, rather than up.

I'm grateful for organic cotton sheets I bought on sale at Target months ago, not knowing how good they'd feel on my sick, prickly skin.

And I'm grateful for the man who is outside with his gasoline powered weed-whacker. It's making a damned ruckus that makes my teeth tingle, but it's him in the hot sun, not my Sweetie.

And I'm grateful for hot showers that I can stand under and pretend I'm inside one of those old timey vaporizors we used to smear with Vicks, then turn on high and fill up a croupy baby's room with menthol smelling steam. Well, at least I'll have the steam!

Wishing for you good health and hoping you don't take it for granted. Cause when you get sick, even a little sick, you feel like poopoo and there's just nothing about that that can make you smile except beginning to feel better.

Merry ME, aka Sicko

* Making up my own "sign" rules as I go along, I figure I can make Dad say anything I want him to say even if it isn't exactly his style.

P.S. Is that not the handsomest couple you've ever seen? I tried that wedding gown on before I got married. Like one of Cinderella's step sisters, I was too big. By the time my younger sister got around to trying it on, it had age spots on it. My mother gave it to the Goodwill. I will be forever sad about that. Here I am tossing out stuff right and left but the thing I long to hold like a child's blankie is a piece of that champagne colored satin.