One Year Ago

One year ago, it was Thanksgiving. Dan was worried that he wouldn't be able to be with us. Truckers didn't always have a choice on where they were on any given day.

But he was here.

And no one wanted to cook. We had decided weeks before that we would go to a restaurant.

It took a while to find an restaurant open on Thanksgiving. But we did.

We arrived a little ahead of our reservation that day. But we still had to wait about an hour. It was miserable on Mel. Very few chairs and those were of wood. It is tough for a man with severe back problems to sit on an cushioned chair. Especially for a long period of time.

So we stood and wandered and talked. And I got a picture.

Jed, Dan and Melodie on Thanksgiving 2010

Then we sat for a magnificent dinner. I don't remember what we ordered. (there were choices!) But I remember talking and laughing and feeling that the meal was very special.

It is etched in my memory now. Less than 3 weeks later he was gone.

And that meal became so very, very special.

This year is so very different. Jed is in San Francisco. Melodie is in Visalia. So it is just Mel and I.

But we decided that Dan would appreciate our new plan.

Bacon and waffles. At home. Watching football.

Yeah, Dan would have liked that.

Oh, God, I miss him.

Smitty

Smitty called the other night. I didn't write about it then because, well, because I just couldn't.

Smitty was Dan' best friend. He knew Dan when things weren't goin' too good for Dan. And he knew him when Dan got it together. He was there when I wasn't and knows things that I don't.

So talking to him is always a revelation. Plus I love him dearly.

He is coming to California for the Vocal Arts concert on the third of December. He will be in the Mission and he will here the last song that Dan ever heard us sing--Shubert's Ave Maria.

Only this time, my son-in-law will be singing the solo. He was suppose to do that last year because his mom was there. (She hadn't heard him sing in concert for 20 years!) But he had pneumonia and could squeak out a note. He was crushed.

Ten days after that concert last year, Dan was gone. And in April Jed's mother died.

Jed will be singing to them this year. And Smitty will be there.

Even in rehearsal, I fight tears. This is gonna be a tough one.

But Smitty will be there as will a bunch of my friends.

This concert, in my mind, is for Dan.

I think he has a ticket.......