It’s been awhile since I indulged my blog. This
past summer, I visited family in Michigan and Arizona. July was busy with a
Leisure Learning writing course at McNeese State that spurred my creative
juices. In between I researched markets and contests, learning
Duotrope idiosyncrasies and submitting some short fiction pieces.
I’ve written before that I’m time challenged. For
those of you who have an orderly mind, it’s a gift. For the rest of us, time is
slippery. Today, as I wrote the date in my journal—Aug. 20th, it hit
me in the face. It’s our son, Clay’s, birthday. He would be thirty-seven.
I do remember that hot August in ’77. My mom and
mother-in-law both traveled from Michigan to take care of our three-year-old son and
me after the baby’s birth. There was a huge rain storm that week, and I recall
watching a man paddle a canoe down our street while I stood at the window and
watched, cradling Clay. Our first flood together.
There were other storms: twenty-some stitches down an
arm after scaling a chain link fence, broken down cars, no date for the prom, the only grade below A in typing, normal life with a sensitive over-achiever.
Twenty-three-years old, Clay lived and worked in
Houston for only a few months before the city was devastated by a massive
flood. I remember anxiously watching scenes on TV of highway underpasses
clogged with water. A familiar ten lane freeway reduced to a drainage ditch.
Clay survived the high water, but a few weeks later we were summoned to Houston
for another storm.
Encephalitis was the diagnosis, but with no known
cause. The doctors treated the symptoms for 2 ½ months before we were forced to
concede. His flood was over.
It’s been 13 years –
where does time go? Many good memories packed away, many life experiences
richer. Thank you, Clay. Happy Birthday.
