Girls.
This is not one of my happier days each year. Not
because taxes are due, in fact this year they’re not officially due until the
18th. Last year, because of the pandemic, they were delayed to July
18. Nah, taxes never bothered me too much. I either owed a little or got a
little back. Of course if I have the option, I’ll take getting tax money back.
No,
my reason for not liking this day is the sadness that has occurred on this date
over the years. It’s just a day I’m happy to get over with.
On April 15, 2003,
we had to put our black lab Layla to rest. She had been a handicapped little
girl that we got years before from a friend. Layla, as sometimes happens with labs and other
big breed dogs, had hip dysplasia and thus had difficulty walking or running
long distances. We got Layla the summer of 1993, a year after we moved to the
house on Ortman Lane. There were some hard times for you girls then and it
seemed that Layla was a good distraction for you. She needed your love, and you
needed hers. She was a good fit in our family. But as she approached her 10th
birthday she was struggling to find the strength in those bad hips to stand,
let alone do much else. It just wasn’t fair to keep her in agony so we took
her to the vet and had her put to sleep and she rests in our garden all these
years later.
On April 15, 2012, while we were pulling into the parking lot at
the Beef House in Covington to celebrate mamaw’s 80th birthday, I
got a call from Chris, my brother Dave’s wife, to say that Dave had died. I
knew the day and the call was coming, I just didn't know when, and it’s the type of call you don’t
ever want to get. When I last saw Dave, days before his passing, I lied to him,
sorta. But it was a lie I had to say. My last words to him was that I loved him
which of course was the truth. But I also told him I would be seeing him in
Owensville. That wasn’t a lie in my mind because I knew I would be seeing him
in Owensville, but I was saying it because that’s what Chris wanted to hear.
You see, Chris was hoping to drive Dave to Indiana to seek better health care for
him in Indiana because she was unhappy with what she was hearing the doctors in California
tell them. She was in denial that Dave was not going to get better, but I knew he
wasn’t. I knew Dave would never survive the trip to Owensville. But to not cause any more fuss than was needed, I said “I’ll see you in Owensville”. But I knew, in
truth, I would be seeing him at Holder’s Funeral Home in Owensville, where he
would come to be taken to his final resting place.
On April 15, 2015, when your
mom, mamaw and I were in Florida, I got a call while we were having a sandwich at
the mall. It was from our friend Sara who was responsible for us getting Sam, our
black lab that we rescued the year before. Sam was at Sara’s farm with
the rest of her large crew of dogs. Part of our agreement with Sara when we got
Sam was that when mom & I needed to travel, Sam could stay at the farm
while we were gone. So while we were in Florida on this trip, that’s where we took Sam. That
call from Sara was maybe tougher than any call I had taken in a long time. Sara told me there had been an accident at the farm and 10 of the dogs perished
in the accident…and one of them was Sam.
It's hard to hear the date April 15, without
thinking of the struggles we’ve had related to that day. I’ll have to continue working each year, as
we celebrate old mamaw’s birthday on April 15, to forget the sadness and instead remember
the good times with Layla, Dave, Sam…and mamaw.
REMEMBER: Never run away from a gun. Bullets can travel faster than you can.
– Wild bill hickock/gunfighter
Be talkin’ to ya.
Dad
Dad
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