It was a little before or after this last Christmas when Dylan and I were waiting outside a girls clothing store. We were looking down into the lower level of the mall. Watching a hawk circle around its perfume cart of a perch.
He was looking for his next victim. Round and round the cart of perfume he would circle until he would utter something to an unsuspecting passerby.
Unable to hear what he actually said, we starting to make things up:
Hey ladies, you smell kind of bad. Let me take care of that for you.
Ma’am, looking good, but I have the missing touch.
Hey buddy, you need some help with ladies?
Want to get your lady what she really wants.
That kind of stuff.
Waiting for Donna and Marisa now, I look downstairs to see the same guy. I get distracted when a mother returns her baby to a stroller with its eyes closed and asleep. I keep thinking about the last I saw my son like that and can’t shake the image of him lying on a table in the hospital.
Unfortunately, an image that you will never be able to shake. Keep holding on to the good thoughts. They give you the strength to get through that image that will always manage to be there. Swimming this weekend at the folks house. The only thought that kept coming through was the last time we got together to do it. Dylan and Thalia made time to come and spend it together with us even though they had plans with Thalia’s family. I remember telling Lonny how proud I was of Dylan for making the effort to show up. Thalia just seemed to be a part of our crazy family naturally without any effort. Yesterday that was missing and I know we were all feeling it. Another painful reminder that our lives are forever changed.