Darling Sylvia, Living in the moment and intentionally putting ourselves in position where miracles can happen are skills that we have honed together. They are gifts you gave me that keep on giving. Forrest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates.” It has been a summer of sweet surprises, but when you returned from 8th grade open house last night, I knew any lazy, hazy days of summer were over.
For real, our days this summer have been anything but lazy. With your guidance, we put ourselves in position to make memories with our three grandchildren. We have intentionally invested in our grands and in we two. Our time at the lake was lived fully in the moment and will be remembered to tell and retell. We watched our boy’s canoe being hauled across the lake by his first big large mouthed bass. We stood in awe when he cleaned the bass and discovered the blue gill in its stomach. We baked silver turtle pocket meals in the fire pit and feasted. We celebrated that this year our baby could swim like a muskrat. She and her brother played freighters and tugboats instead of battleships, and big sister sang the score of Hamilton while treading water just for the heck of it. We caravaned to Attica for ice cream at the Chilly Cow accompanied by the harmony of silly bus stop songs.
And then, there was Greenfield Village. In 1957, you went to a Girl Scout overnight there. While courting in 1967, you took me, and you gave me Luther Burbank’s Garden Cottage library list one Christmas. As young parents, we visited with our children and your mother. This year, we once again went to the roundhouse and rode the train with its steam locomotive belching smoke. Afterwards, I watched Big Sis pick cinders out of your hair and wipe a sooty moustache off Little Sis’s face. Like the Grinch my heart doubled in size. I rode in the back of a 1928 Model T and listened as Mr. Mechanic in the front seat with the driver asked questions about H frames. We rode the hundred-year-old carousel. I listened to our kids, who know everything from books and television, rave about our visit to the Wright Brothers’ Bicycle Shop and Edison’s Menlo Park Lab. Greenfield Village became part of who they are. In our sharing, we are connected in our experiences. You put us all in position to link past, present and future.
At five-thirty this morning, while letting out Peter the cat, I discovered the light from the red moon was so bright that I could see my moon shadow on the deck. This summer, our moon shadows became part of our grands. I hope they will have those gifts for as long as they live.
Love you, Eddie Bert
