As I live and breathe....here's an update.

I left off talking about my father. Only once did I ever hear him stand up to my mother. It was one of those amazingly stressful dinners where it was pick, pick and more pick and the best thing to do was keep your head down, eat quickly and asked to be excused. Mother was on one of her hatred-filled rants of me and I was thinking how wonderful my life would be if she would just choke on her dinner. Would that not prove that there was a true and just God? The kitchen vent ran up to my room and after I made my escape, I ran up to my room where I heard my father say that he was tired of how she treated me. No doubt about it, I was stunned. Her response? "Too late." I was already 17 years old and you know, she was probably right. What's done is done.

He wasn't around that much. Dad was a pilot in the Air Force and was pretty busy most of the time. I don't remember him being that instrumental in my life, but every now and then I remember some specific time that we had a moment or two. I don't think he necessarily "loved" me but I don't think he hated me either.

He was not what you would call a friendly fella; not even nice and I wonder if perhaps his childhood might have something to do what that. Details are sketchy at best and some might not be true, but from what I remember, his mother, my grandmother Fern, left soon after the birth of the third child, a sister to my dad. Times being what they were and my grandfather trying to raise 3 children, my father was sent off to some friends in South Carolina, the Todds. I don't know when Fern rejoined the family or when or if my father returned home. I just know they were never close. Because we moved around a lot, we rarely saw his people in Florida, but when my parents adopted my youngest brother (boy that's a story for another day), the name they gave him? Todd. Those rare times when my grandparents would visit, it was very tense and yet I know they saw things as well. They were Southern Baptists and could teach you a thing or two about being pious. More about them later.