It's the little things that matter.

[AppleBiter]

One of my best friends in the world was killed in an auto accident 9 years ago, today. I had known him from the age of 3. Every year, on this day, I get a little melancholy and introspective. I contemplate the preciousness and fragility of life. It makes me recall all of those small moments that have really mattered, even if to no one else but me.

The first small moment I would like to share is a memory of my friend:

I remember in high school, he and I went cruising around in his pick-up and I accidentally left my jacket behind. When he brought it back to me, there was something in the pocket. It was a mixed tape and a note that said he had a lot of time and music on his hands, so he just thought he would make me a tape for the hell of it. He hoped I liked it.

That small moment made me so unbelievably happy.

What are some of your small moments?

 

[AppleBiter]

One of my best friends in the world was killed in an auto accident 9 years ago, today. I had known him from the age of 3. Every year, on this day, I get a little melancholy and introspective. I contemplate the preciousness and fragility of life. It makes me recall all of those small moments that have really mattered, even if to no one else but me.

The first small moment I would like to share is a memory of my friend:

I remember in high school, he and I went cruising around in his pick-up and I accidentally left my jacket behind. When he brought it back to me, there was something in the pocket. It was a mixed tape and a note that said he had a lot of time and music on his hands, so he just thought he would make me a tape for the hell of it. He hoped I liked it.

That small moment made me so unbelievably happy.

What are some of your small moments?

Jeez, Apple, you really know how to bring everybody down! It's just a porn board!

Fuck it.

 

[BlackShanglan]

I put this in a Father's Day card for my dad:

There was a dinner we had one night when I was in high school. Mom and <brother> were out – I don’t remember where – and you came home from work and a long commute with a treat. Taco Bell. I was a vegetarian, and you remembered the one fast food place that served a salad. You were so happy to have a night together that it’s one of my happiest memories. And you don’t even like Taco Bell.

I still haven't told him what he didn't realize - that you have to tell Taco Bell to leave the meat off of the salad. I didn't have the heart to tell him. He was so happy and proud of himself. It was the only time I knowingly ate meat in five years of vegetarianism, and it was worth every bite.

Shanglan

 

[Guest]

 

[CharleyH]

Too many precious times, irritatingly endearing idiosyncracies, and hilarious moments to recount, but they come to my memory often.

 

[carsonshepherd]

telling someone in a moment of drunken honesty "I love you", really meaning it, even though I knew it could never be returned the way I wanted, it just felt so good to say it. And he was kind about it...he hugged me and said he knew, and nothing changed between us. love like that never ends.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Don't know if it qualify as "little thing" or whatnot, but couple weeks ago at the Anniversary of my old best friend's death, I was standing in front of the grave with his old girlfriend and for the first time standing in that spot I didn't want to crawl into a scotch bottle and never leave. I'm still not "over it" however people put that self-centered shit, but I <err...quasi-religious, put your hands over your eyes and sing> knew that he was being taken care of and had made it and was wrong about the after and well...it didn't feel good, but it did feel lighter.

So I guess not the same at all, but your tale kind of reminded me of that. Sorry for threadjacking.

But yes, it's always nice when you are reminded of the good days you've had with someone who is now gone. It's very bittersweet.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

My grandfather was in the hospital, way down at Kessler AFB. I drove over from Birmingham, where I was working at the time to go visit. When I got in, I got the good news that he was fine and going to be coming home in two days. Everyone else who was planning on visiting had canceled the trip, but I stubbornly decided I was going to go anyway. Mom, in her ever so wonderful way, hinted I should ask dad to ride along. He did, and we had a good trip down. Papa was glad to see us. It seemed no one had actually visited since he went in and he felt kinda down. We had the best time, and I felt very good on the way back to Jackson late that night.

Everyone was planning on going to see him the day after he got back home, but I had to go back to work. I got the call the night he was due back in, from a friend telling me to me as quickly as I could.

My grandfather suffered a pulmonary embolism three hours after geting home. He never regained consiousness and had passed on long before I got there.

At his funeral, I saw my father weep for the first and only time in my life.

Before I left for B'ham again, my father gave me a card with a lovely poem in it and a picture of my grandfather.

He tried to say what he felt, but it was hard for him to show emotion. From the scrawled words I got the point. Had I not been so determined to go see papa, my dad would probably have done as the rest of the family and just planned to go see him when he got home. He would have missed that last, wonderful day with his father. The memory is bitter sweet, but it stays with me.

 

[SeaCat]

My father and I are quite the pair. A couple of stubborn tough bastards who have a hard time showing or sayng what we feel. (I truly feel for both my wife and my mother.) We didn't get along at all when i lived at home, it was only after I moved out and was away from him that we started talking at all. I went up to visit my parents on Cape Cod two years ago and while there decided to help out with some work he had started. My father had decided he just had to remove some branches from a tree. Not too bad except these branches were thirty feet up and over hung one corner of the roof. A liability on Cape Cod with it's Nor'Easters.

Now While my father is a tough old bird he is 69 years old and I didn't think it right that he was climbing that damned tree when I was around. (My little brother couldn't be bothered, he might get his hands dirty.) I played Monkey Man anmd climbed that damned tree. Yes I did cut the branches in such a way they didn't fall on the house. Yes I did get dinged for my efforts. (I was using an electric chainsaw by the way.) The second branch, number two out of four, decided to pop while I was cutting it and got me twice. Once on the calf and once on the cheek. I didn't bother to stop, I was on a roll. I paused long enough to tie a bandana around my calf and kept on cutting.

His comment that evening when he got home and saw my mother sewing my leg closed was to ask how that had happened. When he heard had done the cutting for him he just stood there looking at me for a minute before telling me he hadn't been looking foreward to cutting those branches and was glad I had cut them for him. Then he surprised the hell out of me. Knowing I shared his distast for heights, (Yes we have both worked from high places, and we both have jumped from planes.) he went inside and grabbed a couple of beers and one of my cigars. (He is a rabid anti smoking person.) Sitting down he handed me a beer and the cigar while telling me he was glad one of his sons had turned out to be a man. I can't think of any higher praise before or since.

Cat

(Yes my family is a rather hard and harsh family. My wife and I wouldn't have it any other way.)

 

[minsue]