Daddy long legs... and the mouse

My father, at age 11. When he grew up, his legs always looked so much longer because his upper body was foreshortened by TB and whatever else (body casting, fusing)... He looks so serious...

My father died 22 years ago today, two days before my 40th birthday. I'm sure he didn't plan it that way, but that was how it happened. The two are forever intertwined.

I've been transferring old super8 movies onto DVD this week, as part of a Christmas plan. I haven't been watching them while I'm transferring the information, but I did take the first finished one over to Mom's to show her. She has a little trouble with some of the people sometimes, but whenever she sees my father she lights up. The movies were taken from 1972 until 1983. They started with the birth of their first grandchild, my brother's son (also named after my father, who was named after his father, which makes my nephew a "the 4th"). Fortunately, they named their son Calvin, and broke that cycle! But I digress.

We don't have video tape of my father, so his voice is absent from these movies, but it is SUCH a joy to see his face and see him moving and laughing and holding my nephew and niece with such love... and making the mouse.

My father used to make a mouse out of a handkerchief.. it was one of our greatest joys. it wasn't so much what it looked like, as it was an elongated body with the two ends used for ears and tail, one folded in and the other left out... it was what he DID with it. I watched it again today. He made it move. He made it look as if it was desperately trying to get out of his hand, and then he would pull it back in and it would jump out again. It was real. I watched the face of every child he did this for, and it was real. Just one of the tricks my father had up his sleeve.

I miss him especially this time of year..

long legs, mouse and all

me