Sweet Story

I don't talk much about Dad on my blog just yet, but I may gradually feel more comfortable about it. For now, I just want to share a touching story about my parents' next door neighbors. Two sweet girls live next door to Mom and Dad. I think they are around 12 and 13. They LOVED Dad as much as Mary Ashley and I did. They would come over to the house after school just to hang out with him or early in the morning while they were waiting on the bus. For those who know Dad, he loved picking on them as much as they loved being picked on by him! While I was home for Spring Break, one of the girls asked my mom if she could have "Mr. Mark's Sperry shoes." I'm sure all of you know the shoes - boat shoes or dock shoes, as I have always called them. Dad has worn these as long as I can remember. Well you might've also noticed that they have become very popular with middle and high school kids, especially with girls, who wear them with everything. This next door neighbor has a pair and she said that Mr. Mark would always brag to her that he had several pairs of those shoes and he had them WAY before she even thought about having a pair! So she wanted Mr. Mark's Sperry shoes because she wanted to hang them in a shadow box on the wall in her bedroom! Could you imagine having someone love you and look up to you so much that they wanted a pair of your SHOES to hang on their wall?! We laughed at the time, but thinking about it later brought me to tears. I don't know why God chooses to take people when He does or the manner in which He does it, but it's so hard to accept losing someone so young, who meant so much not only to his family, but also to those people he encountered on a regular basis, whose lives he had touched in such a way that we would never even know until they tell us!