Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Today...

Today, something beautiful happened! My nephew & his wife had a baby boy. This beautiful lil boy is the fifth great grandchild of my parents. If my parents were alive to see this day, I know they would have overwhelming joy. I am sure they are rejoicing in Heaven. What a legacy! Five precious grandchildren all under the age of three.  All because two people fell in love.

I look at the gene pool. It's always amazing to see what traits are passed along through the generations. Some skip a generation while others skip all generations. My parents were a beautiful mix (most days).  My mom was a musician, a poet, & an artist. She had pretty blue eyes. She was on the small side. My dad was tall & brawny, at least that's how I saw him as a little girl. He was a teacher. He loved to farm & took great pride in the vegetables he grew. He was a servant & a character. He was an honest man & made my brothers laugh without even trying.

My mother loved being a spur of the moment kind of girl. She loved having friends drop in unannounced. Sitting on her porch was her favorite past time. Her parents were from Georgia, & she loved her heritage. She adored each of her 10 grandchildren & cared very much about watching them grow up. She took time to enjoy each one of them & loved them unconditionally. She had a fun sense of humor & tried not to take life too seriously.

My Dad took us camping. He even chopped the wood. He was a fisherman. He loved a good fish fry & made the best hushpuppies in the state of Illinois. He pounded stakes in the ground to tie up his tomatoes as if he were building a house. He did a lot of things Dad's didn't do in his day. He took his kids to buy the family dog. He took us to the doctor, the dentist, & to buy new shoes. He bought a fresh Christmas tree every year, knowing full well my mom would not be happy with it. Still, he gave it his all, strung up the lights, & then listened to her complain.

As we grew into adulthood & began to have babes of our own, something terribly sad happened. My dad became ill with cancer. I remember one day, my mom sitting in her Sunday School classroom shedding tears because she feared he would not see his grandchildren grow up. He didn't, but in spite of that, his spirit lived on in us, & his impact was huge in their lives.

So… on this very beautiful day, I reminisce. I wonder… "Will this little boy born today be a fisherman? Will he be musical, or perhaps he'll be a farmer?" And, what about my pretty little niece that was born a few weeks ago? "Will she be an artist? Maybe she will be a servant." I hope she has my mother's sense of humor. As I go down the line through each of her grandchildren, it's easy to see how the gene pool of my parents inevitably showed up in each one of them. A promise that it will show up again in this new generation.

The great grand children are all quite small. It's exciting to see their little personalities develop.  I see the sparkle in my mother's eyes in the eyes of my grandchildren. I have much hope that her spontaneous spirit & her sense of humor will shine brightly in their lives. My grandson swims like a fish. Once the neighborhood pool opened up for lap swim, my mom swam rain or shine. It's hard to imagine just how this gene pool will show itself, but it will. And, in so doing, my parents legacy will live on in these bright & beautiful great grand children.