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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Steve at BeThere2Day, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.
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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.
This month, yours truly is providing the prompts on my blog.
Please feel free to use some of the prompts, none of them, or all of them as you see fit. The point is to get the creative juices flowing in whatever manner your muse leads you.
This week the prompts are:
convince
education
slice
decide
craft
family
and/or the following phrases
beating a dead horse
on the ropes
wake up call
Charlotte/Mother Owl has also chosen Mouse Grey as the color of the month, which you may use as a prompt if you wish.
His marriage had been both a Wake Up Call and an EDUCATION.
He knew when he married a widow with a very dramatic nine-year-old daughter it was going to take a long time to CONVINCE her he would never try to replace her father, but he was willing to be there for her no matter what as an adult she could turn to as a friend.
Trying to CRAFT a FAMILY from broken pieces is never easy and sometimes he felt he was Beating a Dead Horse.
She had him On The Ropes once when, after her softball team had lost a hard fought game, she lit into him about hating that she had to move when he married her mom, hated that she had to join a new team, hated to have had her life upended by an interloper.
He simply, quietly reiterated what he always said, he knew he would never replace her father, nor would he try, but he would always be there for her as an adult she could turn to as a friend.
He was there for her and her mom and she began to see it. He never missed a game, never let her down when he made a promise, and made her mom happy, even she could see that although sometimes she resented that anyone could make her mom happy besides her dad.
One day a counselor at school asked her, "Would you rather see your mom miserable?"
His constant, loving presence and that simple question helped her immensely.
He knew they were turning a corner one day when there was only one largish piece of cake left in the kitchen. She'd made a cake and it had turned out to be the ugliest cake ever, in her words. The icing had turned Mouse Grey as she'd used the food coloring incorrectly and didn't have more ingredients for more icing so had to go with it.
He'd not only eaten it and said it was delicious, he'd made her laugh when he said he was food colorblind anyway and was on the see-food diet, eating all the food he could see.
Then it was down to that last wedge, and they'd both come to the kitchen wondering if it was still there.
"You take it," he said and she responded, "We'll share, it's big enough."
"You're right," he answered.
Then she said something he'd not heard before, "You SLICE, I'll DECIDE."
"What?" he asked.
"It's something my dad taught me, a way to share the last piece fairly. One person does the slicing or cutting and the other picks a piece first. It keeps things fair because you try to make them as even as possible."
"I like that," he said, picking up the knife and making the pieces as even as he could.
"I do, too," she said, and as he finished cutting both pieces, now being rather tall and thin, they fell over, one to the left and one to the right, separating into layers and making a mess.
They laughed themselves silly as they lifted what was left of the bits onto two plates and sat side by side at the kitchen counter with crumbled cake and glasses of milk.
"I'll never replace your dad, or even try, you know, but I'll always be there for you," he said quietly as they finished up their snack and cleaned up.
"I know," she said. Then for the first time answered, "Thank you."
The next softball season, she was the team captain and got to pick the team nickname. She chose the name of his high school baseball team.
(Very loosely based on a true story.)
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Today is:
Aquino Day -- Philippines
Buhe -- Ethiopian Orthodox Church (Christian remembrance of the Transfiguration.)
Cadillac Day -- the first Caddy was built this day in 1902
Consualia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (festival of Consus, god of grain and silos)
Crazy Day -- go crazy, in honor of Patsy Cline recording Willie Nelson's song Crazy on this date in 1961
Fete de la Jeunesse -- Morocco; Western Sahara (Youth Day, on the Birthday of HM Mohammed VI)
Gospel Day -- Kosrae, Micronesia
National Medical Dosimetrist's Day -- American Association of Medical Dosimetrists (medical radiation safety experts)
National Pecan Torte Day
National Senior Citizens Day -- US
National Spumoni Day
Poet's Day -- a day to celebrate the poet in you, and share special thoughts about poets and poetry
Senior Citizens Day -- US (by Presidential proclamation in 1988)
St. Pius X's Day (Patron of first communicants, pilgrims; Des Moines, Iowa, US; Great Falls-Billings, Montana, US; Kottoyam, India; Santa Lucija, Malta; Springfield-Cape Girardeau, MO, US; Zamboanga, Philippines)
Anniversaries Today
Seminole Tribe of Native Americans is legally established and recognized, 1957
Hawai'i becomes the 50th US state, 1959
Birthdays Today
Ozma, Queen of Oz, year unconfirmed
Hayden Panettiere, 1989
Usain Bolt, 1986
Brody Jenner, 1983
Alicia Witt, 1975
James Robert "Jim" McMahon, 1959
Steve Case, 1958
Kim Cattrall, 1956
Jackie DeShannon, 1944
Peter Weir, 1944
Clarence Williams III, 1939
Kenny Rogers, 1938
Wilt Chamberlain, 1936
Melvin Van Peebles, 1932
Shimon Peres, 1923
Christopher Robin Milne, 1920
Friz Freleng, 1906
Count Basie, 1904
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, 1872
William Murdoch, 1754
Francis de Sales, 1567
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"La Cage Aux Folles"(Musical), 1983
Today in History
Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shogun and therefore de facto ruler of Japan, 1192
Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt, 1680
James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales, 1770
The Nat Turner slave revolt in Virginia leaves 55 dead, 1831
Mighty Casey (Dan Casey) is struck out! In a game against the N.Y. Giants, 1887
William S Burroghs patents the adding machine, 1888
Oldsmobile is incorporated as a division of General Motors Corp., 1897
Arthur Rose Eldred becomes the first Boy Scout to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, 1912
Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1945
James Anderson, Jr., posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine, 1968
Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is assassinated at the Manila International Airport, 1983
Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range, 1986
Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses, 1991
The Red Cross announces the famine in Tajikistan and calls for international aid there and in Uzbekistan, 2001
Hurricane Dean becomes the first storm to make landfall as a Catagory 5 since Hurricane Andrew, 2007
After 108 years, a "message in a bottle" put in the sea by the UK Marine Biological Association is announced found on a beach in Amrum, Germany, 2015
Big Ben, the bell in London's parliament clock, chimes for the last time before a four-year restoration process for its tower starts, 2017
The discovery of water-ice on the Moon by India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft is published, 2018
Nigeria goes three years without a case of polio, a landmark toward eradication of the disease, 2019
Masai Graham wins funniest joke at Edinburgh Fringe with "I tried to steal spaghetti from the shop, but the female guard saw me and I couldn't get pasta," 2022
Nice and shiny, too!
ReplyDeleteYour story made my eyes misty. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteJackie had been on the ropes for quite a while. She was totally exhausted and only a fog horn would have any chance of acting as a wake up call for her.
She somehow got the essential tasks done but decided that any attempt to achieve anything more was beating a dead horse. Tomorrow or the day after was soon enough. It had been an education for her. Previously a healthy individual all her energy had been sliced off at the source and vim and vigour were in a far off country. She was totally convinced that being tired/fatigued/exhausted were inadequate words. It needed something MUCH stronger to cover the mouse grey dearth of anything worth-while in her days. She was endlessly grateful for her family who had the craft of healing and support down to a fine art.
This is excellent and I hope her family can help with some healing.
DeleteEC - so well done
DeleteThose who do not know the constant fatigue and ache and grayness can only get a glimpse of how bad it gets. I hope her family stays sympathetic.
DeleteI LOVE your story! How lucky they are to have this man in their lives. I may not have a story by Friday, this cold I have keeps me falling asleep all day.
ReplyDeleteA working dishwasher is a blessing.
ReplyDeleteI'll be back to read yor story once I have either written something myself, or have given up ;)
Good, warm story; and you made me laugh with: "You SLICE, I'll DECIDE." and wish I had thought of this use of the words ... we use this expression all the time.
DeleteLovely dishwasher.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
That made me giggle lol :-)
ReplyDeleteHave a cleantastic week mimi 👍
Looks like a nice dishwasher!
ReplyDeleteI just use my dishwasher for storage of unused utensils that some day I may want again! Hand washing is for me with just the 2 of us.
ReplyDeleteI certainly qualify for Senior Citizens Day and there are times when I feel like every day is Crazy Day. Have a blessed week.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a great dishwasher.
ReplyDeleteAmazing what we have come to rely on ~ dishwasher ~ eh? ~ Another great story too ~ hugs,
ReplyDeleteWishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
clm ~ A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative
Lulu: "Ooh, we got a new dishwasher not long ago too after the old one quit working. Apparently it was a big pain in the tail to install, we heard a few HBO words from Dada while he was putting it in ..."
ReplyDeleteA new dishwasher is always a great thing. Pretty dishwasher too.
ReplyDeleteLove your use of the prompts. I love it when you base your stories on true events. Loosely that is.
Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. Love and hugs. ♥
Thanks for the challenging prompts. My story for WFW is on my blog.
ReplyDeleteThat was a sweet story. Nice dishwasher- I like the backsplash too.
ReplyDeleteThat is a nice shiny new dishwasher. That was a lovely story.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful story with a very happy ending!!! We sort of like the idea of a see-food diet:)
ReplyDeleteWoos - Misty and Timber
That was a good story and hooray for the new dishwasher!
ReplyDeleteExcellent story (still wiping tears away) and how nice to have a new dishwasher - I hope it is something that helps to lighten YOUR load as well as Ms. SE's.
ReplyDeleteBetter late than never, mine has been posted on my blog. I loved your story!
ReplyDeleteWe really enjoyed your story, Mimi. And YAY for the new dishwasher!
ReplyDeleteI so enjoyed your story! I used to sell dishwashers - yet strangly, I've never actually owned one!
ReplyDeleteForgive me, MImi. I tried, but these days words don't come easy to me.
ReplyDelete