Friday, August 08, 2008

Remembering

A very special person in my life lost their battle with cancer this week. To say it's been a rough couple of days is an understatement. But being sad and crying would not be what he would want me, or anyone else, to do! Instead he'd want us to remember all of the wonderful times we've spent together over the past 30+ years!

I remember the first summer Del was a part of my life. We were REALLY young, like not even teenagers yet...LOL! We both "worked" for my dad in the fields, detasseling seed corn. I don't even know if they do that any more, and it sure seemed like the most redundant job in the world back then. But to be getting paid when you were 12 years old was like the COOLEST thing in the world!

Del's sister and my brother were dating at the time, and it was kind of funny. This is how it went. My older brother was dating Del's sister, I was "dating" Del's older brother, and Del was "dating" my little sister. I feel bad for my brother now, when I look back to then. He would have to drag my sister and I along so many times he was going out with Del's sister, but they never made us feel like they didn't want us along, we were all like this big huge family or something.

We'd spend the days working our butts off in the fields, then we'd all go home, clean up, and go do something! Some days we'd just hang out around one of the fire pits at one of our houses, roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, sometimes we'd all go to a movie, or roller skating. But I swear we were all together as a group for what seemed like forever!

Of course, that all changed after my brother and Del's sister were married and started a family of their own. We'd still all get together, but it was different. So times like those are what I'm trying to remember. I don't want to think about Del the way he was the last year, the cancer really took a toll on his body and his mind. And that's not how he'd want me to remember him!

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