Family Tradition...

Here at my kitchen table I listen to the sounds of the morning...I watch the eastern sky wondering what will come next of this sunrise...it turning almost gray.    I think of yesterday and the abundance of gray skies that seemed to surround (eventually followed with beautiful Colorado blue)..   Almost fog and one special family was in my thoughts and prayers.   As the rooster crows I think of my journey yesterday...with thoughts of the family of Everet Miller...All I had written the day that we lost him when I started this was:

I sit here in the darkness and feel the loss from miles away...today we lost one of "the good ones" my brother called him perfectly.   Everet Miller...Big E...Ev...and of course I used to hear him called Butch.   He was my Grandma Bessie's sister's son.   A Texas man through and through.   He had such a love for life and just had such a way about him. 

I think of my Grandma's family and how there has been several losses this year...I came across a picture of Everet's dad....Uncle Frank from a reunion gone past...and he seems to be toasting while his sister's stand.   I think of a father being reunited with his son...I am taken back of the seriousness on all of these sister's faces because usually smiles...but I think it focuses all the more on the smile of Frank Miller...Butch's daddy...and I think of reunions...

And while on reunions...I find another pic...that all of the "more mature" cousins say is "Butch"...and I think about him joining the reunion in heaven...at what seems too young...but again...he might be one of those guys that just wouldn't have done well as an old man...he worked hard...he played hard...and I think to those he loved...he loved with a deep passion...

The picture was titled "Frank...Reedie farm by Bert Store"...memories of days gone by...that takes me back to my own memories...of one of my most cherished with the "Big E" as he was loving called by his family.   At our family reunions there is sometimes a competition between the different branches...and so at the last reunion I went to in Branson...we gathered the Adams branch that was there and I convinced Everet and Jimmie to join the "white trash bag pipe" band...we dressed in white trash bag kilts and we sang Family Tradition.   I still see Everet there and that smile on his face and singing along as this was not really in character of what I thought he might do...but how I loved him all the more for it...when together I seemed to gravitate to he and Jimmie...his sister Kay...special family...

And yesterday I thought of her as well...Kay losing her baby brother....and I thought of them as I told my brother, Shane, that they were a lot like us.   They thought so much of each other...and even if not together...they always knew the other there...and so I know there is just so many losses in the family...I think of his sons...his grandsons...his nephews and great ones...yes...he was one of the good ones and yesterday while thinking of him...a Don Williams song came on that there are certain ones that song goes for and Everet Miller you were one...

And as my day went yesterday...I passed a field of feed lying in the windrows...of harvest time...that we all must come to that place and though that is a truth of it all...it doesn't stop it from hurting like hell for those that are still here...but there is HopE...that word just keeps coming back to me...and as I drove yesterday down to the river...Everet was everywhere...HopE with a Big E...

But probably the one that caught me was the sunflower sitting next to the water hole...for those that didn't know him...Everet was a fisherman...a hunter...and though I didn't share those with him...it was a family tradition that he shared with others in my family...in his family...I think of his birthday being the same as his daddy's and that I think he has a son that shares the same day as well.  I think of the song family tradition and there is a line that says "I am very proud of my daddy's name" and though maybe not all of the song fits...it is family tradition that sticks.    How Everet loved his family...his boys...his grandsons...his wife.   Jimmie talked of spending Grandparent's day with all of them...Jimmie had said...

"Grandparents Day was a special day for Everet and I. The entire family, Chad, April, Colby, Ryland, Bryder, Everet and I had brunch at the JW Marriott in San Antonio. Lots of laughs.....beautiful food."

These gifts we are given...gifts we do not even know how very precious they are...but gifts all the same!   And I go back to the family tradition and a picture that I seen of some of Jimmie and Everet's most precious gifts (one I stole off of Jimmie's wall)...ones in which they adore...a couple of Miller boys that seem to have that same spark and twinkle in their eye...and though not enough time with their grandpa...I know that their daddy and others will pass on Big E stories for them...and there has to be plenty!

And I return to my day yesterday...of being down by the river...almost picturing Ev hunting...and the water...I had the word HopE in my head as I drove...and knew it had to go with this picture some how...HopE with a Big E in it...and one of the Scripture that came to me for all was Psalm 23...one of my most cherished...and so I add this pic I came upon...the sunflowers of his Kansas roots...the brush that makes me think of Texas...the tall grass...and of course the still waters...fishing waters...and I think this morning of someone in Heaven that loved him some fishing and hunting too...I HopE you meet up...

And then there is the kicker...I go to fix breakfast in between writing and decide...a day for some wild mustang Texas grape Jelly...and I have been given a hard time about how long my jelly lasted...but Cory or Rory...whichever one of you gave me the hard time...today I emptied my jar of grape jelly...and I would be lying if I said it didn't bring tears to my eyes and lump in my throat as I know today that one of the ones who helped make that jelly...is being memorialized today...and the other whose hands of love touched this I hold up in LOVE...and pray for her strength as I think of her and her family....

And much like that grape jelly...it is like life...though the harvest has come and the fruit is gone and even the remains...there is one thing that remains...LOVE...and I pray that when walking by  a stream...savoring some grape jelly...or singing along with Family Tradition...we will be reminded of one of the "Good Ones"...and I am thankful that I got to know and love such a man.   I will miss the out of the blue e-mails of some political joke or story that would show up and make me stop and think...give me a laugh...and though not much time with you in my life...a part of family...of the family tradition...Love you...and I end with two things I shared already but wanted to keep them close...for Jimmie and family for that matter...you are all stronger than you seem with a Strength that is there for you...and hE  and He will always be with you...

 

lyp