My Folks

With Mother's Day recently past and Father's Day coming I was thinking of my parents.

I have great parents, no doubt about that. Like most kids, when I was younger I might have taken them for granted, but since I grew out of the typical self centered stages of youth I knew that they wouldn't be around forever. During the past couple of years that fact has been hammered home by sickness hitting them.

Mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in Oct. '03, I remember that well, she told me the night I got back from having seen REM in Atlanta. She knew before but didn't want to hit me with it before the trip. Fortunately they caught it early and she is cancer free now.

Dad has been beaten down morethan once. Since June '03 he's had: bleeding ulcers, appendix removed, knee scoped, prostate cancer and last but certainly not least, quadruple bypass with some other work to repair his heart at the same time. I am also happy to say he's cancer free and recovering well from the heart surgery in Feb. Apparently I shouldn't travel to see REM, he had his surgery while I was in Germany. My Step-Mom debated whether to have me come back, but in the end they decided there was nothing I could do and if something happened I wouldn't see him before he died. Also bringing me back early might have worried Dad. They didn't let on how bad the surgery was either, making it sound more routine when they actually almost lost him during the operation. It was a good time to be oblivious of the facts.

I would be remiss in not mentioning my Step-Mother Kim who truly is a great person. She will never be "Mom" since there is only one, but she has been a great Mother and has stood by Dad for 20 years now, and she hasn't hit him with a blunt object yet. My Step-Father Paul and Mom have been married for 10 years now. Our relationship is a bit more distant, but good regardless. Part of it I am sure is my age when Mom started seeing him.

I feel sorry for people who don't have good relationships with their parents or don't have parents who aren't the caring and giving people mine are. Life is so much easier, so much fuller with a strong family. I know that no matter how bad I screw something up, my parents will be there to help me out. My respect for them is such that every now and then I keep myself from doing something stupid just so they don't need to help me out. We joke that I got about all the worst physical traits from both sides. It's made up by the fact that whatever is good and right in me is directly from them.



Here's to my parents, Roger and Kim, Myrna and Paul.

P.S. Sorry folks, no ETA on grandkids