THE SHORT AND THE TALL STRAW
When I first laid eyes on you I
shuddered in my little vinyl boots. You were taller than any living soul I had
ever beheld. With short back and sides
you looked like a villain from my home town.
How did you even get a pair of pants to fit you. I was an orphan at seven, had experienced
painful abandonment, sorrow, and cruelty
enough for a lifetime. Yet you came to adopt me.
You lost your little boy and was so wrapped up in the pain that you
searched for a life to shed some light on your darkest hours.
How could you ever think I could replace Carl? I was so broken you should have known. Well there I was and you took me into your
care. Two people who had lost it all. I tried to be nice but you wanted me to be Carl. I was Suzie with my tiny face and curly red hair
that looked like a mop on a bad day..... not your little boy! Before we knew it we were in a routine of avoidance
as I desperately tried not to disappoint you with my girly non Carlness.
You searched for him in me from the
boyish clothes you brought, to the
baseball you tried to get me to play.
Then one day I snapped and yelled so loud that you sat down. "Please do not look at me like that"
I said. "You are not seeing me, you
are looking for Carl". That was the
moment you felt your true loss. I could
see the light fade from your handsome face for good that day. You lost your
fight and you slouched and dragged your feet for days, weeks and it felt like
eternity.
Slowly I took your hand and looked
up at you. "Bert" I said "Do you want to play with me, I am
going to bake a mud cake". I
realised that in my petite little body I had the enormous power to love
you. You sat there scooping the dirt,
mixing as I added water, leaves, flowers and stones. At one stage I chucked in some more fake
chocolate and there as bright green as you could get was a teeny little
dinosaur. Carl's illuminated stegosaurus
had risen from the dead.
I held you so tight that day as you
sobbed and cried till you had no more tears.
That was the moment our souls truly met.
We put the Stegosaurus on top of the cake and put it on Carls grave for
his birthday. Bert you are my hero my
father my friend. Now many years on I
have kids of my own and know that I could never have wished for a better
grandfather for my two children . Thank
you my beautiful friend, and saviour,
you rescued me and gave me a life that I can be happy with. You and me were meant to be. We were the short and the long straw. Now we have it all.