Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Mother Nature’s Son

I had the blessing of spending an extra few minutes with my son, Logan, this morning when the bus was late. On my way to work I thought about how lucky I was, and how much I value even a few extra minutes with him. We talked about boundaries, and fiction versus non-fiction. I can almost hear the sponge that is his brain soaking up the knowledge.

Fred wanted to be a gym teacher. Watching Logan in wrestling last night I could feel Fred coaching him, as he did better and better. Fred tried to practice teaching gym on my sister when she was little.

He became a 5th and 7th grade teacher and loved bestowing knowledge on kids; perhaps my sister was a muse. He told me that every school year, if he could reach out to just one kid, it would make him happy. I recall when Fred told me he saw one of his students as an adult, and he told Fred he never forgot “Mr. D”, his favorite teacher, who taught him so much.

A parent of one of his former students contacted Fred for help with her son, just before he passed away. I hope she knows Fred did not ignore her. Because he most certainly would not have. And I truly hope he can assist that young man as he has been helping Logan, from the spirit world.

Fred valued reading and learning. Fran might have hated the gym tests and I, being tackled, but we both would give the world to hear him shout, "Jump!" again, even if we could hear his voice just one more time.