Tag: remembering
What I Want You to Know on Your Mom’s Birthday
How your mom showed me I had really messed something up was the same way she showed me I had done something remarkably well: she cried. This was also how she showed embarrassment, fear, anxiety, joy, or any of a cluster of emotions that… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know on Your Mom’s Birthday”
What I Want You to Know About the Summer You Fell in Love With Baseball
It’s nearly 11pm on a school night and we’re on our way home from the stadium. I haven’t heard anything from you for several minutes and I’m beginning to wonder if you have drifted off to sleep, the excitement of the day finally having… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About the Summer You Fell in Love With Baseball”
What I Want You to Know About the Calendar You Made Me
In anticipation of my upcoming birthday, you started working on a secretive project after school. It was one of those highest levels of classification kinds of birthday gifts. And so what if your backpack was filled with sheets of construction paper every day for… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About the Calendar You Made Me”
What I Want You to Know About Shooting Hoops
The roster is expanding. The Dashers recently added your cousins and your best friend at school, who finally gave in to your incessant offers to join the team. We are now at eight members, and with each new addition, my spot on the squad… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About Shooting Hoops”
What I Want You to Know About the New-Fallen Snow
“I’m going to tell you something, and then after that can we stop talking about it?” “Sure,” I say. “What is it?” “Promise me you won’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you?” “OK, I promise.”
What I Want You to Know About Blood
The blood flows everywhere. It drips into the sink and onto the floor. It soaks into paper towels filling up the trash cans in the bathroom and the kitchen. It dribbles down onto your shirt. You stand on the toilet and lean out over… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About Blood”
What I Want You to Know About 9/11
“Are you OK?” I ask you. You scratch gently again at your cheek, which is reddening a little from your touch, and then your hand jerks back toward your ear where it finds another itch to scratch. “I’m fine,” you say, but you don’t… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About 9/11”
What I Want You to Know About Back to School Night
I stand outside the door to your classroom, peeking around the other parents lined up ahead of me to sign in, as if this is a new ride at Disneyland. I am just excited to see where it is you’ve been spending your days… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About Back to School Night”
What I Want You to Know About Faded Memories
Your memories of your mom are fading, as much as we both fight to keep them alive. More and more when I ask you if you remember the way she would do something or something she liked to say, the answer is, “No.” “Do… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About Faded Memories”
What I Want You to Know About All the First Year Milestones
We’re a few days away from the one-year anniversary of your mom’s death, which means we are almost done with all the first-year milestones. Father’s Day and Mother’s Day; each of our birthdays; Thanksgiving and Christmas; the wedding anniversary; the one-month mark and the… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About All the First Year Milestones”
A Widowed Father 