Daughters - John Mayer

When Sisa and I were teenagers, we tended to run with the wild bunch, if you know what I mean. The longer the hair the better with lots of rock. I knew her older sister first but when their house burned and they moved into the Plaza hotel it was party time. She and I grew tired of the whole anti-establishment thing after a few years and set our sights on going to college. Her major was drama and mine was, of course, science. I remember the day well that she came to hug me goodbye on her way to Knoxville, our lives changing forever. I ended up back home and she took off out of Tennessee after awhile. Now she lives in Seattle with her husband and young daughter, teaching drama and theatre to college students.

Over the years she has made trips home, almost always calling me for a sit down at her family's kitchen table with her parents in attendance. Sometimes there was a brother or two around and we'd talk about stuff from back in the day. Pop and his brother were TV repairmen of the old school variety...a long lost blast from the past of the fifties and sixties when things were simpler but beginning to get complicated. Ms. Ruth worked right alongside them in the business all of those years.

After Sisa's daughter was born and got old enough, she and Pop visited on Skype and kept in touch. He started getting sick several years ago, and things came to a crisis point last month. The last ditch surgical effort to save his life kept him alive long enough to get some things done...goodbyes,mostly...and move on peacefully to his next life.

There are lessons that I've learned from this family that I will never forget as long as I live. Pop and Ms. Ruth are representatives of the good parts of my past and the continuity of family and friendship over a lifetime, and I treasure that.

To Sisa and the brood.....I love you with all of my heart.

Keep the faith ^j^