"One Day At A Time"

Lately I fear I am becoming a recluse. Most days I prefer to stay in my house and read, watch TV, write and wait for my wife to get home from work. I don't have a real need to go out and mix with people. I still do go out and mix and be sociable but my heart is not always in it. Most of the time I am thinking about how soon I can get back home.

It has not always been this way. In high school and college I always had to have a band of friends around me. And when my wife Terry and I were first married we were one of the most sociable couples you could know. When our children came along we cut down on our social life but we still made time for friends.

Then after our children went away to college we began to draw up the drawbridge a little bit more. We still went out to movies and to different restaurants but not with other people as much. We found we preferred each other's company over the company of others.

Just a couple of days ago I got a call from my friend Judy. Judy and I were part of the Holland Street kids that grew up in Clinton, South Carolina so she and I have been friends for a long time. Judy told me her sister Sue's husband had been killed in a motorcycle accident. I couldn't believe it. It was one of those events that was just hard to take in.

Sue had also been a Holland Street kid, but she was a few years younger than Judy and me so we didn't hang around with her that much. Judy and Sue's parents divorced when we were around twelve years old and Judy, Sue, their sisters and brother moved to another town. Judy and I kept in touch but I didn't see Sue that often.

As the years passed I would run into Sue in Clinton. After she got married I would see her and her husband at special occasions. This became more often after my father married Sue and Judy's aunt.

Eventually I met Sue's husband Rut. As my father always said - Rut was a good old boy. My father meant that in the most positive way possible as he said Rut was always in a good mood, always good to tell a story, and always looking out for people. I found all those things to be true too.

When I was around them Sue and Rut always seemed like a couple who truly enjoyed each other. They had three daughters who they adore and now have been blessed with many grandchildren. On the Friday before his accident Rut celebrated his birthday. All of his children and grandchildren were there with him for the occasion. I am sure that will be a real comfort to them in the future.

But what Rut's death brought home to me is that we aren't guaranteed tomorrow, or even the next minute. Life can change in a flash so if you have happiness, hold on to it and cherish it. Nobody lives forever and each day that passes is one day less we have with our loved ones. That may sound pretty fatalistic but it is true.

I love my life. I have for some time now. And I want it to stay the same. There is no one I enjoy like I do my wife and kids. So pardon me while I go out and oil the drawbridge. I am living my life one day at a time inside the castle of my home.

 

 

 

 

 

©2006 Jackie K. Cooper

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