Father's Day

So it's one of those moments I don't know if he'll remember Monday butI'll probably see show up in the scene I envision showing up in themontage that will flash through my head when he gets married.It was the first time Robbie went with me to plant flowers, clean thestone, and generally clean up the grave where my two parents now rest.I can still remember doing this stuff with my mother when my Dad wasthe only one in it when I was five or six, certainly younger thanhim. Young enough that I was one of the few kids in my neighborhoodwho had seen a cemetery both in the daytime and outside of a horrormovie.It had been a while since I'd even been to the grave, not that I didn'tthink about my dad pretty frequently. I think the fact I lost him whenI was four had me giving more thought to him, and maybe holding himhigher than I would have if I'd known him. It's conjecture now. But things changed when Ma passed and Heaven was a golden gate with lotsof clouds and wings and harp music again. So when I told Melanie Iwanted Robbie to help me with a project, she told me he might not be moved the way I hoped.She had both her parents until she was an adult, she didn't understand, I wanted Robbie to do the job with me. I didn’t want him afraid of the graveyard. I wanted him to want to make the cemeteryplot of his grandparents look nice, because it was a nice thing to do for them. We had some petunias for my dad's side and some marigolds for mymom's side. We did, the cleaning and he wielded the sponge and watercan like a pro. He lifted and replaced the toy car he'd placed therethe week before with the care and respect of a royal offering.Our last task, the one that took the most time, was cleaning off theplaque about 10 feet from the CARNEY headstone that identified theveteran status of my father. It was badly overgrown with grass untilthe four corners were obscured. Robbie tried using the weed whacker, which was taller than him, and he tried his best but he offered it backto me. When I was done I had him read that his grandfather was part ofthe 104th Medical Regiment. Born Aug 17, 1921, Died March 17 1970.Once the grass was cleared and it was readable, he gave it a gooddousing with the watering can.And I watched my son clean his grandfather's grave. I can't explainwhy that hit me as significant as it did. It was a connection. And ifyou believe in that kind of thing, which I do. I was showing my sonoff again for the only opinion I've wondered about but couldn't get. Ithink I know the answer. Yep. Great kid there.