Things I'm thankful for.

   Not to sound cliche, but the things I'm most thankful for are my family and friends. I won't dwell on that though, as I don't wait for a special day of the year to tell them that. I tell them as often as I can how I couldn't be me without them.
   I'm thankful for several other things as well this year. There are the things I don't think about much, like the fact that I have my health or that I have an enormous DVD collection. OK I think about that last one a lot, but you get what I mean.
   Then there are the things that I do think about a lot, how luck I am to have finally gotten a job I truly enjoy, something I haven't had in a long time, or how since getting this job I have become closer to my father than I ever thought possible. We still don't always see eye to eye, but we spend a lot of time together. That is thanks to him living Downriver, and me living in Ohio, so I stay with him at least once a week when I work at night. It's been good to get to know him really for the first time over the last few months.
   I'm thankful for the rest of my family as well, my sisters whom I rarely get to see, my mother, who is my mother and I'll leave it at that. My grandmother, who had a hand in raising me, and helped to shape the man I became, despite out obvious political differences. Mostly this year, I'm thankful for my soon to be new step-father, who has been in my life for just over a year now. I know I'm an adult and all that, but it's wonderful having him around, and to see the spark in my mother's eye that never used to be there.
   I'm thankful for all of the blessings in my life, including but not limited to my friends, new and old. I'm the type of guy that has always known a lot of people, but not really had many friends. As open as I am with things, I've always kept things close to the vest as well. I've done that by carefully selecting my friends. I'm very thankful for the relationships I've had, and continue to have with my few close friends. I'm also thankful for the relationships I've made with new co-workers since starting at the News-Herald. Some of the people here have already become members of my 'close' friends circle, though I wouldn't ever tell at least one of them that, she'd make fun of me for being sappy.
   I'm also very thankful for one very special Australian lady, and she knows exactly why, words can't fully explain it.
   I have many other things to be thankful for as well, but I'm more interested in what you are thankful for, so please drop me a note and let me know.

Photographs and Memories.

Photographs and Memories;

All the love you gave to me;

Somehow it can't be true;

That's all I've left of you.

   I barely remember my grandparents. As a small child in Monroe my grandparents lived in the house next door to us. By all accounts from family and friends that knew them tell me that they were both very good people.

   Both of them died less than a month apart in 1993, Fred March 28, and Marge April 22. I was seven. I know that I had memories of them, but I can't recall those memories anymore.

   My grandmother had a lot of health problems, she was bed ridden my entire life, and many times, even before I was born her doctors gave her less than six months to live. I've been told by my family that they think she only lived as long as she did because of me. She used to smile so much whenever I would run in the door to tell my mother, who was her caregiver that my dad ha dropped the expletive hammer or whatever other thing he had on his foot, of course I didn't know not to use that language back then.

   I can remember sitting by her bedside and talking with her for hours, but not anything that either of us said. I have no real memories of her.

   Pop was the healthy one of the two, or so we thought. After he died the family found out that he had several types of cancer and hadn't told any of us because he didn't want anyone to worry while his wife was in pain and needed help.

I know that when I was little he used to take me to the store and get me toy cars, I say get because he would shop lift them, pulling them out of his pocket after we would leave the store. Again though, I don't remember this happening, I only know of it because I've been told it happened by other members of my family.

   I don't have any pictures of them either, nor does my father to the best of my knowledge. We just weren't the type of family that took a lot of photos back then, it was after all many years before digital photography.

   Last week when I got home from work, I logged into the computer to check my e-mail, and saw that someone had tagged me in a photo on Facebook. Innocent enough I clicked the link to see what it was. I didn't know what to expect as the person that tagged me was my dad's first wife, mother to my three sisters. I thought maybe it was a picture of me with them as a child, or of one of my nephews.

   The second the photo loaded, two things happened. First I smiled, second I started openly crying, unable to control my emotions for a few moments as staring at me was my grandfather's face from sometime 20 years or more ago. There were several other photos of my grandma, my sister's, and other members of the family was way back as well.

It was a pleasant surprise, and I'm not sure why I cried, but I just couldn't help myself. At least I was home alone so no one had to see me do it. It was a very bright spot in a week that had otherwise been dragging on, for that I thank you Sue.


Edit: Just wanted to let the reader's know that this will be running as a column in the Wednesday edition of the News-Herald.