Simple Pleasures

Note: This is the ninth update I made to Addison's CarePages site. I mention something about my clock stopping the day Addie died. It's true. It did stop. It has sense resumed, but our lives have forever been split in two. There's before. And after.

Posted May 15, 2012 9:48pm

Ice cream.

That’s what Addie would’ve raved about today.

Right after she finished bragging about the fact that she was done with school for the year and I still had another week.

Today was the last day of school for Syracuse students.

That would have meant a stop at Jo-Bob’s after school. She started making plans for that about three months ago. Actually, five months ago. You see, when I talk about Addie, it seems my clock stopped sometime around March 26. So, when I say three months ago I mean three months before the day that she died.

So, ice cream is what she would’ve been looking forward to. Vanilla no doubt. Nothing fancy. Just plain vanilla.

That’s just the way she was.

And think back to your childhood. Wouldn’t an ice cream cone have made your day too?

As would the chance to spend some time with friends.

At the pool.*

At the ball field.

At home.

The way it’s supposed to be.

Last summer, our phone rang off the hook. Little girls calling for this and for that. And now, quiet.

Except for the little girl who called a couple of weeks ago. Wrong number.
Normally, I’d be looking forward to summer.

And now, it’s just another thing for us to get through.

*Yet another thing that Addie was plotting for this summer. An “account” at the pool. $20 in that account and she’d be in heaven. Poor choice of words, I know. But anyone who's dropped off a tween at the pool knows that a little bit of money and a little bit of freedom is, in fact, heaven.