The D or Big Uncle D...

as he is known to all those under four feet tall. By all manner of logical reasoning, children should be intimidated by or apprehensive about The D. He is over six feet tall, large framed and muscular. My father introduces him in this way: "This is my son-in-law, the house". He possesses a deep voice that booms when he laughs. He has dark, red hair and freckles (lots and lots of them). Throughout the winter he wears a full beard and in the summer, a shaggy goat tee. He works hard, plays golf, loves football and beer in brown bottles. He's a man's man.

So, perhaps he has an aura that only children can sense. Perhaps its his warm eyes. We don't know. We just know that children love him. They gravitate to him. Walking through the park or mall children smile at him or ask him to throw a ball. Children within our families love nothing more that to play video games or snuggle up to him through a movie. My own niece screamed anytime I, or anyone other than grandma or her parents, held her for her first 18 months of life. Except, of course, for The D. During those 18 months I babysat a lot because my brother was working and my sister-in-law was in school. The D had to learn to feed and change her because she would cry to the point of spitting up if I did it. Put her on The D's chest and right to sleep she would go. I have a four year old cousin who just named her new pet fish after him. She lives 400 miles away for fuck's sake! She sees him once, sometimes twice a year.


I don't do it often, but when I do ponder the why of our situation to the Universe, I think of him first. So many men are not interested in children or good with them until their own child comes into the world. So many men leave their children or fail to parent them from the start. . Yet, here sits a man who seems to have been created to interact with children and our house is empty. Why? I can accept that everything happens for a reason; that there is a plan for us. I accept that and look forward to seeing how it unfolds. But, maybe, please Universe, just this once, may I have a hint as to why?

Is it at all apparent that we spent the entire, long.holiday.weekend. with family?