My Dads Name is Alex

Artist's rendering of the chase.

The post about my Grandma and the road kill brought back a lot of memories. One that is seared into my mind is the day my dad got pissed at me for some reason, and believe me he had many a reason to get pissed at me. That day when my dad came after me with the belt I ran out of the front door and down the street. This time however, my Grandma was at our house on one of her Sunday visits. To this day I still can hear her running out of the door, screaming after her eldest son, "Ahlex" (she was Austrian just like Arnold Schwarzenegger) "Ahlex don’t you touch that boy!". With those words she became my heroine forever. I already loved her because when I was a baby she smothered me to her bosom like I was her own, and as my face lay crushed against her I could see the lace hanky that she tucked into her cleavage. That being the same lace hanky she would use to clean the dirt off of our faces with a little bit of spit. My dad listened to his mother and gave up chasing me that day, she having more power over him than me. So I lived to irritate him another time.

You never know when someone you love is going to pass on. Sometimes it’s a total shock, and sometimes, like with my dad you know it’s coming. Still, no matter what, it is sad. I had visited my Grandma in the hospital the day before she died. She looked fine and was totally aware and cognizant. We had a nice little talk, she bawled me out for having my hair too long. The next day my dad came home from the hospital and told us that she was gone.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that we only have one life that we absolutely know is real. We need to be nice to each other in this life because there is no guaranteed make up game.