A family of three…

 

 

Words from the journal of an only child…

On the top of my desk amid the clutter and dust sits an old 5 x 8 black and white.  It’s one of my favorite pictures of us I’ll carry with me all my life.

I must have been 5 or 6.  Mom’s hair was still brown and dad’s was still thick.  But to look at it now sometimes I get scared to think that someday they might not be there. Because who’s gonna know but me?  Who’ll help me recall all those small memories when I’m all that’s left of this family of three? Who’s gonna know but me?

Down in the cellar under the steps sits an old box of junk that I’ve saved.  Newspaper clippings, letters and cards even some code-a-phone tape.  Slices of life I can hold in my hand and show to my kids so they might understand in those years to come when they ask me some night what grandma and grandpa used to be like.

If  life were a video I would rewind.  I’d go back and slow down each moment in time.  Then I’d disconnect the fast forward button so I’d have forever to tell then I love them.  The older I get I can’t get enough of them.

Who’s gonna know but me?

 

(Cathy is an only child and so is Michael her son)