I have been told everyone grieves differently.
We are coming up on Halloween and for our family, its a Christian approach we take more than feeding the Devil, altho we do celebrate.
Either we go to the "dress up as angels thing" at church or we Trick or Treat with a non-scary non-demonic outfit.
In any case, we get candy.
It has been tradition since our daughter was 5 years old to share candy with my Dad.
Particularly chocolate.
After a long pacing of streets, counting heads, trading for Snickers bars, running from scary teenagers, watching someone's beer soaked Dad be Frankenstein, or a large hairy gorilla, and checking out the houses...we travel back home.
But some where in there we always make a left turn instead of a right and go to Papa's house.
There, the dining room table is always awaiting, bare.
Except one napkin holder in the center.
We would come in exhausted, greet our Grandparents and they would laugh at our silly outfits they of which they had no idea of what each was.
Never the less, we would empty pillow cases, pumpkins baskets with handles, pockets,
onto the table.
The colors would jump out at us.
Especially the reds in a KIT KAT bar.
Everyone ran for the MOUNDS and ALMOND JOYS.
We are coming up on Halloween and for our family, its a Christian approach we take more than feeding the Devil, altho we do celebrate.
Either we go to the "dress up as angels thing" at church or we Trick or Treat with a non-scary non-demonic outfit.
In any case, we get candy.
It has been tradition since our daughter was 5 years old to share candy with my Dad.
Particularly chocolate.
After a long pacing of streets, counting heads, trading for Snickers bars, running from scary teenagers, watching someone's beer soaked Dad be Frankenstein, or a large hairy gorilla, and checking out the houses...we travel back home.
But some where in there we always make a left turn instead of a right and go to Papa's house.
There, the dining room table is always awaiting, bare.
Except one napkin holder in the center.
We would come in exhausted, greet our Grandparents and they would laugh at our silly outfits they of which they had no idea of what each was.
Never the less, we would empty pillow cases, pumpkins baskets with handles, pockets,
onto the table.
The colors would jump out at us.
Especially the reds in a KIT KAT bar.
Everyone ran for the MOUNDS and ALMOND JOYS.
SAVE THE BABY RUTHs for DAD.
Papa loves any chocolate so he just drooled and waited it out.
We would ask him his choices and he would say
in his Papa voice"Oh no, you guys eat your candy!"
All the while his hand was stretched out for a MR. GOODBAR.
We would separate the candy into piles; hard candies, licorice, large chocolate bars, peanuts, apples, raisins, now laters, some coin and distribute accordingly.
A glass quart Hellmann's mayonnaise jar held Papas portion of the candy.
He would take only enough to fill the jar.
By March he would still be checking to see if there was any chocolate left from Halloween, as dementia was setting in .
But despite the dementia, my Dad was the coolest Dad (other than my other Dad in California) and he was a piece of great work!
I will gather the children up on Saturday.
Load them in the car, drop them off to the Halloween party at the middle school, walk the streets with Ty and Ked, return to pick Poppi up and go to the homestead.
We will drop the candy on the table, separate it and pay homage to my Dad.
"Sweets for the sweet" he would say.
I love my Dad.
I miss him more, I do believe.
Papa loves any chocolate so he just drooled and waited it out.
We would ask him his choices and he would say
in his Papa voice"Oh no, you guys eat your candy!"
All the while his hand was stretched out for a MR. GOODBAR.
We would separate the candy into piles; hard candies, licorice, large chocolate bars, peanuts, apples, raisins, now laters, some coin and distribute accordingly.
A glass quart Hellmann's mayonnaise jar held Papas portion of the candy.
He would take only enough to fill the jar.
By March he would still be checking to see if there was any chocolate left from Halloween, as dementia was setting in .
But despite the dementia, my Dad was the coolest Dad (other than my other Dad in California) and he was a piece of great work!
I will gather the children up on Saturday.
Load them in the car, drop them off to the Halloween party at the middle school, walk the streets with Ty and Ked, return to pick Poppi up and go to the homestead.
We will drop the candy on the table, separate it and pay homage to my Dad.
"Sweets for the sweet" he would say.
I love my Dad.
I miss him more, I do believe.
and the candy? It will be music to my soul as bittersweet as it is.
This was sad.
ReplyDelete