Unanticipated Lunch And Goodbyes

August in the Lowcountry can be brutally hot.  The air was so thick you could only walk slowly through it.  Daddy called me and said Mom was working and why didn’t I come to have lunch with him.  Daddy was an amazing cook and I was not going to turn down his homemade country fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits, mashed potatoes and brown gravy with corn on the cob dripping with melted butter.

I wondered what the special occasion was as over the last few years we had drifted apart from the closeness of my childhood.  I had been on the road for several years playing music and he wasn’t too happy about that.  Maybe he was reaching out so as soon as I got out of church, I headed his way.  It had been hard on the road, to many towns and back roads.  Some nights I didn’t even know where we were.  In the end I walked away and never looked back.  I knew the healing was only starting and to be honest I needed him today.

The heat waves shimmered up from the highway causing an illusion as if I were caught in a dream.  I was listening to Jimi Hendrix’s All along the watchtower.  It felt heavy today and somewhat ominous.  “Two riders were approaching, and the wind began to howl.”  As I pulled up in the driveway, he opened the front door and sat on the porch swing.  He had a drawn look as if he were in pain and I was a bit concerned until he smiled that heartfelt smile of his.  He put his arm around my shoulder and said let’s get some tea and eat.

Daddy said grace and I was surprised as it was something he never did.  We ate until we couldn’t move and then sat for a while talking about what I was going to do now that I was finished with music.  I had many options and knew I would go back into retail.  He laughed and said they are going to make you cut that hair off and we laughed together knowing that was so.  It was time to do something different although I had no idea where the adventure would take me on over the coming years.

We grabbed some more sweet tea and went to sit on the porch together.  He talked a lot about the farm and how hard it had been for us, but he said he was happy there and he and mom had grown close from the hardships.  He had recovered from the loss of the farm and they both were doing well and had good jobs.  He said he and mom were going out to eat seafood when she got off work, daddy loved him some oysters then head up to my sister’s house to fish with the grandchildren in the lake there.  He hugged me goodbye which he never did and as I watched him in the rearview mirror, I saw him rubbing his head again and for some reason I cried all the way home.  I had a feeling of loss even though we had a good visit and I went to the phone several times to call him but never did feeling he may be napping.

I went to church that night and a deacon tapped me on the shoulder and said I had a phone call.  It was my sister telling me Daddy suffered a massive heart attack while fishing with the grandchildren and he was gone.  I closed my eyes and could see him knelling down gabbing a handful of dirt then looking at me with that smile saying this is good dirt, things will grow well here.  He stood up and walked away never to return.

Authors Thoughts

I am grateful of that last meal.  We had an unanticipated goodbye neither of us knowing it was coming, both knowing that something was in the air but not knowing what.  We should live like each day could be last yet love as if we could share eternity together.  We should never let the unspoken things fester we should give them voice and release them so that our words and love are both pure and sincere.  Love a lot, laugh a lot and make your story one that your children’s children will talk about.  Be a quiet person and, help others and make a difference where you can.