It seemed like we spent forever at the hospital today, meeting Harvey, Harvey’s nurse from the nursing home, Khun Yuwaret, and the main doctor for Harvey there for a routine visit.
Harvey was in pretty good spirits this morning. At one point I was in tears because he thanked me for being there for him. I hugged him and told him that Brian and I will always be there for him because we love him.
Then Khun Yuwaret and I were standing beside the bed while Brian talked with the doctor. I said, “We really like Khun Yuwaret.” Harvey said, “YES!” firmly. Khun Yuwaret started to cry then, saying that this is the first time he has said that.
We BOTH lost it because she told us she is leaving at the end of the year, relocating to Chiang Rai to be closer to her family. We are happy for her, but I am pretty devastated that she’s leaving. I made her this card to give her Thursday, at what might be the last time we see her –
We did, finally, get what we needed from the doctor to get Harvey’s medical visa renewal. Brian headed out again to take all the paperwork to the wonderful lady who helps us with visa stuff.
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I haven’t done much else yet today. I think my energy is hiding somewhere. Maybe I’ll discover it after I finish writing my posts for the blog….
I hope you’re having a wonderful day. If you’re traveling for the holiday, I wish you safe and smooth travels. If you’re having people to your home, I wish you a joyous celebration.
A pastor once asked an older farmer—dressed in his worn bib overalls—to say grace before the morning meal.
“Lord, I don’t like buttermilk,” the farmer began. The visiting pastor cracked one eye open, wondering where this prayer was headed.
The farmer continued, loud and clear, “Lord, I don’t care much for lard either.”
The pastor shifted uncomfortably.
“And Lord,” the farmer went on, “You know I really don’t like raw white flour.”
Now the pastor peeked around the room and noticed he wasn’t the only one feeling uneasy.
But without missing a beat, the farmer added, “Yet Lord, when You mix all those things together and bake them… I sure do love warm, fresh biscuits.”
Then he finished with this prayer:
“So, Lord, when life hands us things we don’t like—when it gets hard, or confusing, or we just don’t understand what You’re doing—help us to relax and wait for Your mixing to finish. Because when You’re done, it’ll probably turn out even better than biscuits. Amen.”
Alright then… carry on.
(Credit goes to the original owner / Earth Geographic)
“Angels on treetops and tinsel so shiny, Porcelain Santas and Reindeer quite tiny – Low-hanging ornaments, Popcorn on Strings… Say your goodbyes to your favorite things.” ~ “Christmas Tree” – Sandy Humphries – Pinterest
If you’ll look very closely down from the bow on the tree, you will see the prime ‘ornament’ on my good friend Carla’s son’s Christmas tree this year…
Meet Sunny. She decided to take up residence in the tree. The wise owners then took down the breakable ornaments in deference to Sunny. Isn’t she beautiful?
As you can see, she has made herself quite comfortable.
Here’s looking at YOU, Human! Meowy Christmas!!!
“May your Christmas tree survive its annual battle with your cat.” ~ Jane
Today when we visited my husband Harvey at the nursing home, he wanted to know if I had brought him an iPhone 17, and then he wanted Brian to go out with him so he could buy Brian a certain kind of motorcycle he had seen on TV… Otherwise, we got the thumbprints we needed for the medical visa renewal, and some pictures of him. We should be able to get everything we need together for the renewal by the middle of next week.
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I’m making some progress on my puzzle. Brian is teasing me about (1) taking a long time to finish it, (2) NOT TAKING LONG ENOUGH to finish it – ‘griping’ about how much money it costs to get the finished puzzle picture printed on glass like the other two I have, and then (3) already having bought me the turtle puzzle I wanted, but couldn’t get, a while back.
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Art – First Cry
I’m splitting my time today between my puzzle and painting another of my sketches. It’s good to have the rest of the day free to do what I’d like to do, not having to rush – just enjoying.
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May this be a reminder not to stress over the holidays. They are different for each of us. Even when things are good, the details can get us overwhelmed, when we should be concentrating on just spending time with those we love; or, if we cannot do that, enjoying the memories we’ve built over the years, making us feel warm inside.
These cute photos were supplied by Jonas Grinevicius and Vikorija Osikaite via their article, “Cats 1st Christmas” on BoredPanda.com
I well remember one of our cats diving into the middle of our newly decorated tree, bringing the whole thing down onto the living room floor. After that, I only used ornaments that wouldn’t break…
This is one of our mailbox decorations in Arkansas.
Here in Thailand, it’s 73 degrees and sunny! In my former home in Greenwood, Arkansas, it’s 13 degrees right now…
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I will be painting some of my sketches today. I’m not sure what else I’ll do, other than start getting ready for my housekeeper to come tomorrow. I have such a lovely life here!
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Rattan Chair I Covet
I discovered that this chair I want is in a hotel. At least I can enjoy looking at it from time to time. I probably couldn’t have afforded it if it were for sale in a shop anyway…. 😩. And I wanted the white cat, too!
I hope that you’re not going nuts trying to do six things at once to get ready for Christmas. I realize that if you have kids, much of it is about the presents, but I HOPE that you take time to cherish those who are with you to celebrate, more than the presents, decorations, food, and hustle, bustle. You are building memories that will serve you the rest of your life, something that can’t be taken away
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We went to visit my husband, Harvey, at the nursing home this morning. He was pretty alert, and was following the pictures we were showing him and the things we were telling him pretty well. He seemed comfortable and pretty calm, although at one point, he asked where his gun was. We explained to him that he wasn’t in Arkansas now, he was in Thailand, and that we had auctioned off all the guns before we moved. He told us there was a male nurse who came to his room yesterday. He didn’t like him and wanted to shoot him. GREAT. HUH?!
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Brian and I stopped for a chocolate drink on the way home. There are lots of Christmas decorations showing up every day. It really lifts your spirits to see all the lights and happy decorations. There is a tall Christmas tree in the lobby of our building with colored flashing lights, presents under the tree, and two tiny reindeer in front. Really nice!
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It’s a beautiful day today. It was 66 this morning, so I didn’t wear a hoodie to the gym. I did, however, wear one when we went to see Harvey. The GRAB drivers tend to keep their vehicles cold, and the room where Harvey is is cold, as well, so I was glad I had it with me. When we got home, however, I was sleepy and wanting a nap. I opened several windows, pulled the screens across, turned off my air purifiers, and created a wonderful cross breeze that was perfect for a nice nap. Ahhhh! I now have everything closed up again, but it was a really nice interlude.
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Drawing – PenguinsDrawing – Frog 2
These are my two latest painted sketches. I have such a great time in my art alcove. It seems I barely get started and my alarm is going off that it’s time for me to exercise or go somewhere. Such a pleasure!
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My jigsaw puzzle is going very slowly, but I AM making progress and I DO love to do it.
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Enjoy the days leading up to Christmas. Try to remember to slow down and BREATHE, enjoying the process, the anticipation of the love you’ll share, the fun you’ll have, the laughs you’ll enjoy.
When I was about 5 living in Tulsa, OK, we had two rabbits: Peter Rabbit and Welsh Rabbit (Rarebit!). We got them when they were very small and we all loved them. We all had chores related to them, as they had the run of the house. When they got to be full-sized rabbits, my mom ‘disappeared’ them one day. We never found out the details.
She had 3 chihuahuas at once a couple of times. She had a chair in the living room that was her center of activity. She would work the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle, with her coffee on the table beside her and the three dogs in the chair with her. She would hold up one of the cute doggies, similar to the photo above, and ‘talk’ for them in a high baby-talk voice in conversation with you. There was no way out. You HAD to respond to what the ‘dog’ was saying. 😜
She loved ALL baby animals. My dad brought home a monkey in a cage from the pet store. My mom gushed about how ‘cute’ he was – until he figured out how to get out of the cage, ran into the kitchen, grabbed the head of lettuce soaking in the sink and proceeded to carry the dripping head all around the house, up the draperies, etc., with my dad running after it with a towel, trying to catch it. He finally did, and I can remember with great detail how it looked with the monkey’s teeth coming through the towel, trying to bite my dad. The monkey went back to the pet shop.🐒
When my mom saw a baby elephant on TV on ‘The Wild Kingdom,’ she gushed, “Oh! Isn’t that CUTE!!!!!” then looked at my dad and firmly said, “Jim, I DON’T WANT ONE!”
My mother was very intelligent. She wanted to go to college to become a lawyer. Her dad refused to pay for college, thinking it was a waste of money. She finally convinced him to pay for college at a 2-year community college, Cottey College, in Nevada, MO – but he was firm he would only pay for one year. She finished that year one credit short (a gym class) from fully graduating from the two-year college. I asked her why she didn’t go back to college later. She basically told me that she gave up that idea years ago and wouldn’t revisit it.
She was a very adaptable woman. She married and had my brother and me in Chicago, IL. They moved to Levittown NY and bought a house. When my dad got an opportunity to go into advertising, we moved to Tulsa, OK where my parents had a house built on 1-1/4 acres of land in a neighborhood unique to Tulsa. My mom was used to big cities, theatre, shopping in huge department stores, etc. (though it was during the depression, rationing, etc.) and felt she had been dropped onto a different planet in Tulsa, where you needed a car to do anything, there were no deliveries, no delicatessens, barely an outdoor drive-in movie theatre. When my dad started a one-man advertising agency in our home, she became his secretary, handling all of the business requirements, answering the phone, typing the commercials my dad wrote, and more – all while raising my brother and me.
She became active in the community. She was a good organizer and a great speaker. She could get up in front of a group and say what she thought with style, impressing all who heard her. Sometimes, if someone in the group challenged her ideas, she would respond, her words and phrases getting longer as her irritation grew. Sometimes she would tell the person off in such an elegant way that they had to go home and look up the words to figure out she had insulted them!
When I married, we moved to Arkansas. My husband suddenly needed a job and took one in Tulsa, living with his parents. When Brian needed a different school environment, he went to live with Harvey and his grandparents. Harvey was working in Tulsa. I was working in Arkansas. We were straining everything to pay for Brian’s tuition at the school there and stay afloat.
All of a sudden Harvey’s dad decided that he didn’t want Harvey and Brian to live there anymore. Harvey found an apartment, but I had to sell some stuff in order to help pay the rent. I talked to Harvey’s parents, telling them they had really thrown a wrench in our finances because we were counting on being able to live at their house, and in fact had made sure it was all right before we signed the contract for the tuition. My plea didn’t help.
My mom called to visit. I didn’t say anything, but she knew something was wrong. She insisted I tell her. When I did, she said, “Let me get back to you.” Ten minutes later we were on the phone again. She said, “I have just arranged to pay the year’s tuition at the school.” She had saved us financially. Words can’t express the relief I felt. I called Harvey and he called my mom in tears, thanking her for saving us.
My mother was a seamstress who made a lot of her clothes, seeing something she liked advertised, then buying material and a similar pattern, and making the dress so well that people thought she shopped in the really expensive stores in Tulsa. She made a lot of my clothes, as well.
The really amazing thing was that she altered every single shirt my dad wore their whole married life. (My dad fell off a horse when he was 3 and broke his arm and hand so badly that he left arm didn’t heal correctly. His left arm was much shorter than his right, and his left hand was essentially useless.) My mother would take out the left sleeve of every shirt they bought, cut it off at the top and insert it into the modified hole for the sleeve so well that people were unaware of what she had done or the need for it. She also knitted sweaters for my dad, carefully making the left arm shorter than the right so that it fit him perfectly. 🪡
I’m in awe of my mother’s abilities in so many things. She was a very exacting mother, and I fell short of her expectations many times, but she came through for my family when we desperately needed it and loved me in her way.
I have many memories of her, look up to her, loved her. I carry her in my head and my heart, so I am never alone. ❤️
I’m feeling a bit nostalgic about fall in the United States today. In Thailand, there IS no ‘fall.’ There is a ‘cool season,’ where the constant rain finally stops and temperatures drop to a low of 50 and highs in the mid 80s. It was late this year, but officially it’s from November 1st through mid-February.
It’s funny, the temperature is not that cold, but there is no heat in Thailand. The emphasis is rightly on the other 3/4 of the year where cooling is a necessity. 50 degrees with no heat seems cold, and I’m learning to dress in layers, I put the throw Brian got me on my bed, I’m using the water heating unit in the shower now at least a bit, and I heat up hot water to drink.
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Whitaker Point – Jeff Rose – AR.com
In Arkansas, the fall was a busy time for us. Our place was a little more than 8 acres of pretty heavy woods on top of a ridge line. Because the summers were hot and dry, the leaves started falling early. I spent days and days raking and blowing leaves, then grinding them up to create mulch for my planters all around the house, and then redistributing the mulch, packing it down to try to protect our plants for the coming winter.
We had a small square foot garden where I grew a lot of veggies for us. In the fall was the time I would finally harvest the last of the veggies, do a final weeding of the special soil I created combining vermiculite, peat moss, and as many different kinds of mulch – including my mulched leaves – as I could to use in place of regular soil. This combination was put in 4’x4′ boxes we made and put on welded frameworks that made the boxes come to about my chest level. We filled the boxes with the soil alternative up to the top to prepare for spring planting, and then covered the boxes with tarps with a tall thing in the center of each one so that ice and snow would drain off. This way of planting kept me from having to bend over double or get down on my hands and knees to tend my plants. We made an irrigation system for the 6 boxes we had and surrounded the whole thing with fencing to keep critters out.
Fall was time to make sure our generator was working well and would come on reliably in the winter when we lost power and needed it. We had a well house where we had piping for both public (city) water and well water. We used well water for things on the outside. We had a propane powered heater in the well house to keep things from freezing up and we lit that in preparation for the winter. We also unhooked the irrigation system we used to water all the plants around the house, drained the LONG hose system we created, and put faucet covers on all the outside faucets.
We mowed one last time and I weed whacked and pruned carefully so that it would look like someone cared. We cut back trees in the driveway on both sides that we thought might fall into the driveway with a winter storm. No matter how much we did, though, it wasn’t enough, and we would have to chain saw our way down our 650 foot driveway to the street below.
We would make sure we had firewood ready to be lit and stored where we could get to it easily. We lit fires in the fireplace more because we loved being able to sit on the hearth and warm our backs, plus see the glow of the fire, rather than really NEEDING the fire for heat, but we had peace of mind having it.
One winter we had no public water and no electricity for 14 days. This made us get really serious about preparing for the winter up there!
All this preparation needed was one of the reasons we decided it was finally too much for us and that we should move to Thailand to retire. We have some fond memories of the fall season, though, in Arkansas when the heat of the summer had finally eased off. We could open doors, air out the house, turn off the a/c, and enjoy spending lots of time outside in the yard, on the screened back porch, on the deck with our pets, and more.
Like the song that says, “Sorry, not sorry,” – I ‘miss it, but don’t miss it.’
Today is a quiet day. I’ve been to the gym, eaten breakfast, done a couple of errands, and ended up taking a nap because I got super sleepy. This is the life of a pampered retired lady. 😁
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Men are going to paint my balcony today, so I have my drying rack inside with the fan on to dry my few things. My new door lock works like a dream now! The changes made yesterday have it so it doesn’t hurt my hands a BIT to open or close my door now. I can almost forget that I have arthritis!
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Tracy Chrest – Substack
I’m going to write more posts for the blog and then spend some happy hours painting, puzzling, and reading. I’ve also decided to move some things that I’m not using up out of my way.
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I’ll do my yoga stretches this afternoon. I’m able to stretch more lately and I feel good when I finish.
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And that’s my exciting day! I hope that you are wringing every drop of joy that you can out of the day!
Today was emotional, stressful, but ultimately we prevailed!
It was emotional because we visited my husband, Harvey, at the nursing home this morning. He ate the pineapple pie and drank the grape drink Brian brought for him, but didn’t say a word. We thought it was going to be a complete bust of a visit.
We showed him pictures and told him about what was happening in our lives, trying to include him. He nodded or shook his head, but otherwise wasn’t responsive. We weren’t sure that anything was getting through to him. Some questions we asked were totally ignored.
Just as we were leaving, he said, “Love you, Babe.” I lost it. He hasn’t said that since his stroke 9 months ago. I ran back in and hugged him again, thanking him for saying that. Totally unexpected, absolutely appreciated. I was tearful the whole way home.
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It was stressful because the new lock on my door was really hard for me to open and close. It’s a nice lock, a sturdy one, well made and fancy, but the arthritis in my hands, particularly my thumbs, was triggered each time I tried to open or close my door. It was just too much for me.
Brian came in to my place when we got back from visiting Harvey, screwdriver set in hand. He worked for over an hour on it. He would take it apart, it would work, then when it was put back together, it got tight again. He finally called the locksmith back for help.
Happily we only had to wait a little while for him to come over. He and Brian worked together. Brian was able to demonstrate the problem. The locksmith was able to see with his own eyes where the problem lay. He had to work on it another hour, but finally got it to work really, really well.
Best of all, when “I” tested it, we could all see that it was perfect. No English on his side, no Thai on my side, but we communicated that we were both really happy he had made it work so well. Best of all, he refused payment for today’s travel and work. So we prevailed to the satisfaction of all.
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Half the afternoon is gone now and I’m exhausted. I think I’m going to try to relax and take a nap in celebration.
My son’s birthday is today. I gave him this card I painted. I got a HUGE smile, TWO nice ‘thank you’s’ and TWO big hugs…. 🤗
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Yesterday was a wonderful day
My housekeeper left these flowers for me, PLUS a spotlessly clean place. I’m so lucky to have her.
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I gave my favorite server at the cafe a Christmas card a week or so ago. He came back to my table later to ask if I had painted the card. When I said, “yes,” he clutched the card to his chest and gave me the sweetest smile I think I have ever seen. Yesterday he brought me a gift –
He actually wrote me a note inside the card IN ENGLISH! He was very worried that he had made a mistake. It said, “I wish you good health and happy forever Auntie. Merry Christmas.” and he added a very small heart.
The pouch has a stuffed bear face on the front and a keychain. It was inside the sweet Christmas box. Inside the box was –
Thai people are very into stickers of all kinds, in fact that’s the main thing they do for Valentine’s Day, for example. I put two of the stickers on my sketchbook, since I bring that to the cafe every Friday. I put sketching supplies inside the pouch and will bring that next Friday. I attached the stuffed Christmas tree to the keychain on the pouch. Isn’t this amazing! 🤗
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One of the building cleaning ladies ‘thanked’ me for her card by bringing a dessert filled stick of bamboo to my door soon after. This is a traditional dessert for Thai people, made of rice, coconut milk, and various flavorings to make a really tasty treat. Brian and I had a great time devouring it.
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I’m going to make thank you cards for both of these kind people. I never expected anything in return for the cards I made. This just shows you what a wonderful place Thailand is!!!
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At about noon, the locksmith is supposed to come back to my place to install my new lock. It was too large for the hole in my door and he didn’t have the tools to make the hole larger, so hopefully today I’ll have my new lock! Brian will be able to get into my place, if needed, and vice versa, with the new locks. It’s a nice security addition. PLUS, I can quit using the lock in the doorknob that is very cranky at times! 🔑
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Edge Early Learning
I’m hoping to spend a good amount of time in my art alcove today. I want to sketch the thank you cards and I want to start painted a backlog of sketches I’ve done in my sketchbook.
Yesterday I told you that I didn’t feel ‘alone’ because I carry my memories with me. I’ve continued to remember my dad since I wrote that post.
My dad had an infectious laugh. He was an amazing storyteller.
He told one story of he and his friends (all dads, some granddads, NONE of whom had any experience at all) going ‘camping’ one weekend in Arkansas. They decided they would float down part of the Arkansas River in flat-bottomed boats, pick a spot along the river to camp overnight, cook dinner and breakfast over a fire, and then pack leisurely to hike back to their cars.
They stopped at the boat rental place. The renter asked if they had floated before. They hadn’t, but assured the man they wouldn’t have any problems. He made SURE they understood that the river was a little rough this time of year and that it was really important they wear life jackets.
They left their cars, packed up two flat-bottomed boats with their gear, and proceeded to get into the boats and embark. No one had experience in getting into boats, much less floating down the river, so immediately one of the boats dumped over with one of the men trying to climb in. They managed to grab all the gear that went into the water, got into the boats and headed off, their big adventure under way.
The group that was in the first boat lost patience with those in the second boat, so went ahead at their own speed. The big problem with this was that they had all the beer in their boat and so the men in the 2nd boat had nothing at all to drink. The sun was beating down and everyone got super hot quickly.
The 2nd boat caught up with the first, yelling about the beer. They proceeded to divide it up, all drinking until they didn’t care how hot it was.
To make a long story shorter, they couldn’t start a fire because they forgot matches and no one had a clue how to start a fire otherwise. They ended up having some crackers and the rest of the beer for dinner.
They got the bright idea of digging “butt” holes in the ground to make their sleeping more comfortable. All worked like crazy, using whatever they could find to dig with, trying out the hole to make sure it finally ‘fit’ their butts. They got into their sleeping bags, exhausted and hungry, but more than a little high. One of the men started cursing. When the others asked what his problem was, he yelled, “I sleep on my stomach!”
The next morning, still hungry, they were all up before the sun. They were wandering around trying to take care of business, get things together, when one of the men started cursing. He had been trying to brush his teeth – using his tube of Unguentine instead of toothpaste.
With no breakfast, they called the rental place to come get them instead of trying to hike all the way back to their cars, agreeing that this was the first and last camping trip.
Besides painting great mental pictures with his words as he related the story, my dad relived the tale as he spoke. He would break up, laughing helplessly, over and over, almost unable to go on, tears streaming down his face. It almost didn’t matter what he was saying, everyone around him laughed because HE laughed, totally caught up in the story.
He had several stories that we begged him to tell over and over, just to share his joy and fun.
I can see his face in front of me now, trying to catch his breath while attempting to go on with the story. It took me quite a while to ‘remember him laughing’ after he died, but I replay his stories in my mind and heart NOW, remembering how much he loved life and loved to laugh. I have wonderful memories of him to carry with me forever. He’s with me.
I went to the gym, ate breakfast, then went for a terrific massage this morning. Ahhhhhhh!
Be Secure Locksmith
A locksmith came to add new locks to Brian’s and my doors – ones that use the same key – for security and to bypass the keyed doorknob on mine that is a pain. He got the lock installed in Brian’s, but needs to come back tomorrow to do mine, after he discovered he’ll have to modify the hole to make it larger before he can install mine. I’m happy that (1) my swollen door has been planed and repainted, and (2) that tomorrow the lock will be one that locks and unlocks my door easily. It’ll bring peace of mind that Brian will be able to get in here, should an emergency occur. 🔑 Being able to use the doorknob to simply open and close the door will be so good!
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Soon we’ll go to the cafe to get out of Khun Nong’s way while she cleans my place. I have my sketchbook and supplies, my Kindle, and my sweatshirt ready to go. I’m looking forward to doing some sketching, and then I’m starting Book 3 of ‘The Lost Bride” trilogy by Nora Roberts, “The Seven Rings.”
I’m hoping to get ‘my’ favorite seating place by the front window where I can watch the amazing traffic go by. There are two official lanes in both directions, with vehicles steering around each other when the opportunity occurs (or they can MAKE one occur), plus a gazillion motorcycles, motor scooters, and bicycles who have brought weaving in and out between vehicles on both sides to an art form, plus the pedestrians walking up and down the street on both sides, or trying to cross the street. Good luck! 🤞
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This is ‘my’ chair. We have passed it a couple of times in our travels, and I love it more every time I see it. I can just picture it in one corner between my dining and living areas. It would look absolutely GREAT. The fact that it will take me winning the lottery in order to buy it, and then pay to have it delivered to my place are annoying ‘details.’ When we passed it recently, there was a white cat asleep on the cushion! As I looked at it, assuming it was a stuffed animal, it opened one gorgeous blue eye and yawned and stretched. I. WANT. THIS. CHAIR!!!!
“Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.” ― L.M. Montgomery, The Story Girl
This was my father, Jim Wheaton.
My brother and I were raised by two ‘only children.’ My dad was embarrassed to show emotion, having learned early that he needed to protect himself from people getting too close and possibly hurting him. (He fell off a horse when he was 3, permanently damaging his left arm, making it almost useless, and the cause of relentless cruel taunting from other kids.) He defended himself by developing an incredible sense of humor.
He learned to look at a situation as if he were watching a movie. He made himself see the humor in the situation, learned not to take himself too seriously. He learned to make the other children laugh. They learned to look past his disability and accept him because he was so much fun to be around.
He passed this sense of humor and attitude on to us. I learned to appreciate the stories he would tell, the jokes, the puns, the sarcasm he used regularly, the snide comments. Humor became a survival skill that I have used throughout my life. If I can see the humor in the situation, I can deal with it.
He ran a one-man advertising agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I grew up. He used his humor in his work, creating ads that made people not only remember and try products of his clients, but earned him a following as an entertaining guy – a celebrity of sorts – on the radio. He billed himself as the “second worst radio voice” (the first being a florist who just read her own words in a scratchy voice as an ad.) He won numerous awards from the local advertising organization, winning an Addy Award for lifetime achievement in advertising.
When I was making a final presentation in my class for a Master’s Degree as a Reading Specialist, my theme was skills to build intelligent judgment of advertising claims. I asked my dad to be my featured speaker. I finished my talk presenting my dad, as Jim Wheaton, Advertising man, and the room went nuts, wanting to hear the man behind the ads. He finished his presentation by saying something about the joy of being asked to speak, and “how proud he was of his daughter, Linda Lewis.” The place erupted. They had no idea we were related. I couldn’t speak. This was the first time he had ever said he was proud of me. I knew he LOVED me, but this was a moment that still makes me tear up as I type.
When my dad died, he wrote on a napkin, “Remember me laughing.” It was a long time before I could, but I do. Even though I’m living by myself now in Thailand, a country strange and fascinating to me, I am not alone. I can FEEL him looking down at me, particularly when I’m sticking my neck out – feeling uncomfortable – reminding me he’s proud.
I remember him. I honor him. I brought him here with me in my mind and in my heart. I’ll never feel alone.
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