It’s very hard to believe that it’s already been a month. *HUGS*
http://blog.scottsontherocks.com/blog/2014/01/12/saying-good-bye/
I didn’t speak at his Memorial but the kids really wanted me to stand up and talk about this…
Dalton did not ride home with us every day but he always knew he COULD. He’s had the option for 4-5 years. All of our kids used to ride the bus more often but it started getting too crowded. I know he loved it whenever Heather (the senior), asked him (7th) to sit with her, whenever she was on the bus! Courtney vowed that, as a senior she would NEVER step foot on a bus. Apparently, I had to take that vow with her since, she doesn’t drive!
He also knew the only rule in our cars: the front seat is up for grabs UNLESS Courtney is here. (I didn’t make the rule)! He’d often race them to the front seat and they’d all be out of breath and giggling and simultaneously screech “AWH MAN!” if they’d been beaten (or if Courtney was in the car already 😉 ). We all PLANNED (it wasn’t ALWAYS me driving, sometimes it was Jeff or Heather) on picking him up too, so we planned accordingly for which vehicle (car or truck) & how many kids. (We often have OTHERS too. Sometimes the “others” were friends of Dalton that didn’t want to ride the crowded bus either.) The suburban has the seat warmers, only in front, for cold days!
Sometimes he would CHOOSE to sit in back and play a game/app with William or share music with Ashley. Last year was interesting, because he and Courtney had a PE class at the same time (different classes in same gym). This year, he and Ashley both have the same teacher (different classes).
When I asked “How was school?” or “Do ya’ll have any homework OR PROJECTS?” he knew he better chime right in! It’s only 15 minutes from the school but sometimes he’d hop in even if he knew I was running errands or picking-up/dropping-off a kid in the other direction first. I usually tried to make sure they all were able to talk about their day. We often talked about goals too and he’d tell us about joining the Marine’s; you have to keep your grades up.
One day when we stopped at his house, he said to me, “Do you realize you talked the whole way here? That’s the most I’ve ever heard you.” We all spoke/shouted at once (about ME talking) and he jumped back and FELL out of the car laughing (the car rides low, so it was only inches to the ground). After I made sure he was OK, I scolded him about almost hitting his head, and said I have every right to, because I treat all kids like they are MINE! From atop his backpack with a leg still inside, and totally laughing, “Ok, I get it, YOU can talk!” I said, “Consider me the crazy neighborhood ‘aunt’ that’ll get all over you for bad grades!” So he started introducing me to his friends that way.
We would all often have just plain txt conversations going on “I’m here @ the rock, in truck” “ya’ll don’t dawdle!” “mom is running late, meet me by the door out of the wind” “Ashley left her notebook in class”
or someone “have a mtg w/teach, can u wait for me?”
or he’d call “I got on the bus but it’s way too crowded, are you still here?.” There would often be “funny voices” that accompanied his phone calls… and/or when waiting for others (he’d “voice over” analogies of why they were late). I’d tease him and say “I’m really only here to get YOU, no others are coming, I just love YOU t-h-a-t much.” Even mine would say “She’s really here for you, we are just riding along!”
I cannot even begin to imagine Roni & John’s grief because I only “sometimes” saw him for 15-20+minutes, and I never really realized how hard it would be, just to, NOT include him in my simple daily txt:
“I’m here @ rock, in truck”
[ NOTE: His friends painted the rock!
http://blog.scottsontherocks.com/blog/2014/02/03/at-the-rock/ ]