The Best Man
My son, Tom, called me while I was in New Orleans back in
2005. I had lost my job in Boston and
fly down there to help my brother with his business. It was a few months after Katrina hit and the
town was a mess. I worked as a
carpenter, floor sander, painter, then as an insurance adjuster. It was hot, dirty, disgusting work and at
night we would sit out on the sidewalk at a bar on Magazine Street, waving
flies off our food as Humvees full of National Guardsmen drove by, fully armed,
to look for looters.
Then, my son called me and asked me to be his best man at
his wedding and if I could drive up to Atlanta for his bachelor party. I was
blown away and drove up there in a rented car trying not to cry for the joy and
pride of it all.
My own father once said to me, in all seriousness, yet with
a smug laugh and a sneer, just after my son, Tommy, was born;
“You couldn’t be father to a cat”
He was wrong. I was and am a good father and I have a great
son to prove it.
FTC – remembering in 2015
(I have been blessed with a fantastic daughter, Elizabeth, and now have FIVE grandchildren (Lochlan and Aria from Tommy and Melody, and Leo, Sammy, and Peter from Biz and Andy) to play with. They call me Gaga and Grandaa. awesome)
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