Promises to Keep
It seems like eons ago that as a young girl, I was getting ready to immigrate to the United States from England. I wasn’t sure if I was thrilled or terrified upon moving to my new country with just my parents and dog.
Although excited about the idea of moving to America, I was also frightened about leaving my extended family. I thought I might never see them again.
I did have a few cousins who I didn’t know and they lived in New York and Canada. So when my parents chose Las Vegas for our new home, I dreamt about one day having a big family.
The years seemed to fly by and suddenly I was graduating high school, heading for college and still it was just my parents and me.
I eventually married, gave birth to two girls and now we were a family of six. And as if the years were pages in a book turning too quickly, suddenly my daughters were married, and we were a family of eleven when one of my daughters added three children.
I must have glanced away and missed a few more years flying by, but by then, my granddaughter married and added three great-grandchildren. And soon thereafter, my middle grandson married and added two more great-grandchildren.
The years keep moving on, birthdays came and went. As my youngest grandson, Alex grew, so did the bond between us. We had many, many discussions over the years, but they didn’t seem to get serious until both of my parents, his great-grandparents passed away.
Suddenly he expressed concern about my health. Whenever my grandchildren spoke to me, and if they seemed worried about my advancing years, I would always laugh and tell them “I will make you a promise. Nothing is going to happen to me, until after I dance at Alex’s wedding.”
The pages of that book were turning faster and faster and overnight it seemed Dan threw me a surprise “Age 50(+)” birthday party.
By the time you read this, “that wedding day” had arrived and I had my dancing shoes ready. I cannot tell you how excited I was at this juncture.
My family has grown with Dan by my side, two grown daughters, three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. And each year at the end of May we celebrate with a big, loud family vacation.
For me, one promise I always keep, but at Dan’s insistence I made one more promise to keep. I promised him that “nothing will happen to me until his NY Giants win the Super Bowl!”
According to him, if I keep this promise, I’ll be around forever.
