Absence

Today would have been my parents’ 69th wedding anniversary. They are absent. I don’t get to talk to them on the phone. I can’t run down to see them. No more hugs. No more birthday cards or one of dad’s newsworthy letters. They are physically absent.

But, pictures like these, old cards, letters, and memories take some of that sting away. They left a place in my heart. Our home wasn’t perfect. I certainly am not. But I knew and I know that they loved me. They weren’t absent parents when they were here. They planted their song within my heart.

Absence sometimes helps us remember things we might have ordinarily forgotten. My dad had a little smile and you knew he would think something was hilarious. But mom, on the other hand, had an infectious laugh. When I remember those kind of things, they aren’t absent to me. They are here with me.

Let’s see if we can all be a little more present, then when we are absent, we’ll leave our song with everyone else.

The blog today was written from a prompt given to us from the Five-Minute Writing community. We are given a prompt and are to write for 5 minutes.