ON A HAPPIER NOTE!!!

As I drove into my carport, I saw brown envelope on my front porch. I got out of the car and picked the envelope up, wondering what was inside. I looked at the return address and saw 562 Kenion Forest Way, Oh! I thought, Will was sending me some sort of magazine or something. I went into the Learning Center and dropped the envelope on a table. I turned on the TV to watch the recording of the golf tournament that Tiger had just won. I got up and walked over to the table to get a piece of gum and picked up the envelope, thinking, I can glance through this while I watch Tiger. I opened the envelope and reached in to get one of the magazines out. I see a picture of my son holding a little dog. He had on this white doctor's coat with the "The Village Vets" logo on it and he had a stethoscope draped around is neck as doctors do. At that moment I felt this indescribable rush of pride. My son on the cover of this magazine. My son selected over a bunch of other folks to be on the cover. The words beside his picture read "Get the 411 on 24-7 Vet Care" I just sat there and looked at his picture. He had this little stubble of a beard, more gray than black. My chest got very full and my eyes sort of gloss over a bit. This is my son on the cover of a magazine. This is the little guy that I use to get up early on Saturday mornings to play rough house on the floor while his mother slept. Many times we would get in my little 65' Volkswagen and ride around (baby car seats were not invented back then). This was the little guy that, at the age of about 12 or 13, I use to get up and drag to the track well before dawn, telling him that getting up early like that would strengthen his mind. I am sure he thought that I was crazy and I probably was a little bit. This it the little guy that I taught to drive a car and watched as he became a young man. This could go on forever.....

I open the magazine and skipped to pages 18 and 19 where I see this picture of my son and his team of doctors. Again, my chest expanded as I thought to myself, this guy has grown into a very special individual. He is a great doctor and a great businessman and a great family man. He along with is wife, Francoise, have built what some believe to be, the premier veterinary operation in the Atlanta area. I read the article and re-read the article and smiled and thought to myself, "let me call Shugsie" because she surely should share the prideful moment with me, since she was a major player in the whole process. I called Shugsie and we just chatted about the great feeling you get when you see you children do well.

I hung up the phone and just sat there and looked at the four photographs on the wall. Photographs of Will, Deanna, Kimberly and JoLai, holding their degrees from Vet school, Law School, Med School and Law school, respectively. Then I thought about Dave, Tyler, Gabby, Olivia, Isaiah and Zachary (grandchildren) and said to myself, "How can one person be so lucky and so blessed?" I have experienced more joy watching my children and grandchildren than anyone can imagine.

These are the times that make rough times worth the pain...