During school, we typically don't answer the phone. We stay offline as well, but today something wonderful happened. It was an interuption worth having.

In the middle of a school lesson, my middle child looked out the window and saw a truck in the driveway. It wasn't just any truck--my DAD was driving!!!  Out like shots we flew from the house to meet and hug in the yard. We just saw him a couple of days ago, but he was DRIVING!! It had been months since my Dad had driven on his own.  His brothers, my brother, or myself have been doing the driving for him. It was as though this year hadn't happened and there he stood in the yard like always when he'd drive down for a visit. Honestly, it seemed like time had rolled back to pre-cancer days!

Workbooks were put away, we went outside to walk in the yard, take the dogs for a walk, and watch the children jump on the trampoline. We fiddled with the tractor and talked about firewood for the winter. We planned a trip to Cades Cove. He stayed with us for a month in the summer after his surgery, but hadn't seen the changes we'd made in our ongoing remodel. Pleased, he said he might not mind a stay with us again---which made us all laugh. His last stay was punctuated with hourly statements of, "Well, I'm ready to go home now. How 'bout it sis?"

After Mother died I used to dream of what it would be like to have her back again. When things were bad with Daddy, it seemed like I tried to squeeze every bit of life and memory from each moment , anticipating  his loss, knowing I'd need  those memories to help me. We thought we'd lose him. And here he was, driving, cancer free, in my house again.  We sipped our coffee together, looked at old photos, and enjoyed our time together. It was a real visit--not a doctor's appointment, not a hospital stay, not a recuperation. But a lovely, lingering visit. And Daddy was able to drive.

It may seem like a bunch of drivel, this post of mine. Maybe it was just something you had to be here for. I'm glad we both were.