Monday, December 26, 2005

Late on Christmas evening I was thinking... (still could) and I thought the dangerous thought I should know better than to voice...its sort of like tempting the Gods a bit... I thought that at this time all of my Mum and Dad's kids and grandkids and great grand children are alive, reasonably well, and as far as I knew all were with someone they loved...

All of them had enough to eat..more than enough.

All of them have a roof over their heads.

And then I thought about my Mum and Dad... he was a labourer from the age of 12, and supported first his Mother and family, then all five of us and himself and Mum.

We spent every Christmas with each other till first he died and then Mum died.

We always had enough to eat...a roof over our heads and the peace and tolerance of parents who let us become what we could.

Dad died young, with no debts and no savings but a home we owned and Mum died the same.

I felt like their success as humble as it might seem to be in this world needed to be acknowledged by me...

they actually were happy and it showed.

They got it right by having no real choice I suppose but keeping it simple...but some in the same situation of apparent poverty and hard work would become hard and bitter and take it out on the kids...

They made the choice not to be like that.

A toast to my Mum and Dad... and all those like them.

3 comments:

Amy said...

Cheers!

Amy

Diane S. said...

My father, whose own father abandoned his family fairly early in his life, began working at the age of 6, helping to support his mother, his grandmother, and his brothers. He has gone on to support my mother, myself, my sister, and to be incredibly generous to his grandchildren. When he is gone, I don't know what he will leave behind materially, but I know he will leave a family that loves him and that never questioned his love for them.

So, if I may, I raise my glass with you, and say, "Cheers!"

BwcaBrownie said...

Wishing you all the very best things during the new year, and wishing your father had been given the State Funeral that KP - greedy grasping man - is getting instead.