57 Chevy... (my dream)

I am finally having more frequent dreams about Andy, now that 15 months has passed. I think maybe I was afraid to dream about him. Now I love it when he is in my dreams.

My most recent one was a lot of fun, very strange, but I woke up happy. It was very vivid, I have heard dreams like this referred to as "technicolor dreams." In my dream, he called me on my cell phone. (This would be a first, since I didn't get the cell until after he died.)

I gasped, "Honey! Where are you???"

He said, "Well, SOMEBODY thought I was dead and had me buried. It took me awhile to get out of there."

He told me where he was, and I drove over to see him. He was waiting for me with a shiny yellow and white 57 Chevy.

I said, "I take it you are doing the driving."

He laughed and took me for a ride, then dropped me off at our house. He mentioned something about having to pick a friend up on his way out. I then woke up in a joyful mood, and drifted off to sleep again with a warm sense of peace. I don't know what the dream meant, but I enjoyed the ride! :)

Now, for the rest of the story.

Just after I woke up in the morning I received a call that Andy's brother-in-law Raymond had passed away during the night. Could that have been the friend that was waiting for the ride? It would be so cool if he had really visited me, and Raymond had a fun ride on his way to the other side!

A story by John Henry, (age 8)

I am turning this post over to John Henry. He wrote this story for school.

A Monster Under my Bed!

By John Henry


One day I looked under my bed. There was an egg. I put the egg by the fire to see what kind of egg it was. It was a MONSTER egg! It was just a baby, but not for long. He ate, and ate, and ate. Then he drank, and drank, and drank. Then he ate some more.Then, after that he decided that he was going to destroy the town! He ate buildings and cars and people and bill boards. After awhile the police decided they couldn't handle it any more and they called the Army. The Army called the Navy. The Navy called the Marine Corps. They started off to get that monster. Planes covered the air. Tanks covered the grounds. But then I said "Stop! I can tame him!" I got a net and threw it on him. The Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps all said "HE DID IT!!!!"

The End.

A memory quilt for my birthday

This quilt was made by Mary Kay Roy, out of my Honey's shirts. Didn't she do a wonderful job?

Naturally, every shirt has a story. I will only tell a couple.

The American flag shirt second from the upper left is his of the identical shirts we all wore on 4th of July, 2000, and also one year to the State Fair. The blue patch in the center is the scrub shirt he wore during the birth of John Henry. On the back of the quilt is fabric with Labrador Retrievers, in memory of Sheba.

It took her almost a year before she could even bring herself to cut into his clothes to make the quilt. But what a wonderful birthday present to me.

I love you Mary Kay!

My surprise from Shelby

I received a huge surprise tonight! Shelby won a first place award for an essay that she wrote about Andy. Not only did she win a prize from her school, she won first place among all 6th grade students in the school district! I don't know how she kept the secret, but she did not tell me until after they announced her name at the awards assembly.

Here is her essay:

My Daddy
By Shelby Waller
Kenneth Cooper Middle School
Mary Lillard, Teacher


My daddy was a very strong man. He had many trials in his young life. He almost drowned in a well at age two. His closest sibling was eight years older than him. His dad died when my daddy was only thirteen. He was then the man of the house, and had to work on his parents' farm in little Friendship, Oklahoma. He didn't finish high school. He quit school in the eleventh grade to go fight for his country. He was a supply truck driver for the army in the Vietnam War. My dad finished school many years later.

He got married very young. He had three daughters, three sons, and many stepchildren from his marriages. They were Frances the oldest, Andrea, Andy, me and then my youngest brother John Henry.

Before my mom and dad were married a terrible thing happened. He was at a new job as a truck driver when a fork lift driver dropped a car on him. He survived, but came out of the accident a paraplegic. He was rushed to the hospital and given large amounts of blood. He and his wife became divorced because of all of the stress of the accident.

My daddy and mom were married on August 14, 1987. I was born in 1990, then soon after they had my brother John Henry. In 1994 Dad started to have medical problems. He almost died when I was five years old. He started to get better, but he could not go back to work. He was completely well then for three more years. Then he got really sick and went to the hospital. The doctors figured out that when he had the blood transfusions he had gotten hepatitis C. When they figured it out it was too late for them to do anything for him. He was in the hospital on my birthday in 2001 and I can remember that he gave me his jello because that was all he had.

My daddy passed away on February 25, 2002. My mom always called him her hero, and that is what it says on his headstone. I miss him every second and when I'm really sad I think of what he had to go through and it gives me the strength to move on.

One day at a time.