My Perfect Day

 

by Pa Rock

Old Fart with a Cane

My sister, Abigail, and her daughter, Tiffany, drove out yesterday from northwest Arkansas to visit, and we spent a very nice day together,  Gail and I chat over the phone when we can, but it had been just over a year since we had last seen each other in person, and it had been several years since I had seen Tiffy.

We met in town for breakfast, and then they came out to the house where we sat and talked for a couple of hours while the guests became acquainted with Rosie and Gypsy.  Both of our girls love company!  Later we drove into town, saw a few of the sights, and wound up at a flea market and yard sale where none of us bought anything.  Last night after a brief respite, we had dinner at a nice local restaurant.

It was a very pleasant day, both the weather and the company, and one I truly appreciated.  I have an upcoming birthday, and the ladies each presented me with a card before leaving last night.  Then, during the night, Tiffy emailed a video that she had found on Facebook of the old Noel School (Noel, Missouri) where I graduated from high school in 1966 and where I was serving as the school's principal (by that time it was a K-8), nineteen years later when the vidoe was made.   I have watched about half of it this morning and will finish viewing it later to day, but what I have seen so far is an emotionally overwhelming experience..

Nicest birthday gift ever!  Love you, Tiff!

The film that Tiffany sent was made by a local citizen for viewing at our first-ever all-Noel School Reunion which was held in the spring of 1985.  After that there were two more reunions at the old school, and then it was bulldozed by a newer, unconnected, and uncaring county school administration, and a newer, plainer, and far more sterile facility was erected in its place.

But the video that Tiffy sent, which I had last seen on the day of the reunion in 1985, brought back a ton of memories.  It included an interview with a much younger me at the time.   (Age 37 - I will be 78 tomorrow, but that is the me I hope my kids will be able to remember - and I know that I need to do some serious work to make that happen.)

My guests were spending the night at a motel here in West Plains and then going on to do some other visiting on their way home today.  They dropped me at my house after dark, and as I was standing on the porch waving them goodbye, the phone in my pocket began ringing.  It was my good friend Carla (Turnbough) Brown of St. Louis.  Carla and I had been close friends in college in Springfield, Missouri - Southwest Missouri State - in the 1960's.  I answered her call just as Gail and Tiffy drove off into the night, and I sat down in a chair on the porch to enjoy the conversation.

Carla and I don't visit as often as we should.  In 2009 we traveled to New York City together and had fun exploring the Big Apple with a group of college students from Kansas, and two years ago we made a similar trip to New York in connection with some theatre work that my son, Tim, was doing there.   Currently we manage a phone conversation every few months.

My friend in the St. Louis area called to tell me about the passing of our former college president, news which I had already heard.  The our conversation drifted into problems associated with aging (she is about a year younger than me), and dealing with adult children.  We talked for over half an hour, and much of what she shared was like a bolt of lightening across my withering brain.  Our talk was my second best birthday gift of the season.

Over the past few years I have had some friction with each of my three adult children and, of late, quite a bit with one in particular.  My friend in St. Louis has had similar experiences.  She told me about a podcast that she had recently come across in which Michelle Obama and her brother talked about difficulties with aging parents - and they described it in terms of the parents, realizing they are slowly dying, are grieving the end of their lives and struggling with giving control of their lives over to others.  Boom!  That was me!  That was Rocky Macy at this exact point in his life.  Puzzle pieces of confusion began falling into place.  It was a Eureka moment!

But Carla, who missed her calling and should have been a social worker, wasn't done there.  After the psychoanalysis and diagnosis, she told me about things she was learning from her amazing physical therapist.  We are both in the process of learning to walk with a cane, and, silly me, I didn't realize that there were right and wrong ways of doing it.  I thought you just picked up a cane and began hobbling along, but Carla's physical therapist is showing her how to use it properly for safety and to physically benefit from the experience.  She was able to pass quite a bit of good information along to me over the phone, and now I am going research the matter on YouTube and see what else I can learn.  I'm inspired and think this cane business could actually improve my quality of life.

Those wonderful visits yesterday and the video of the young me at the Noel School all rolled together and made a perfect day.  There won't be many more birthdays, and I'm at peace with that, but this one is shaping up to be a dandy!

Have a wonderful day.  I'm going to - it will be my second in a row!