they can't stop, mom.

A1 stumbled across my baby brother's picture yesterday. Well, not really stumbled, being that the picture is in a frame on a table in plain sight. But funny how she never mentions his pictures on any given day. Yesterday she decides to say "Mom, I miss your brother & your sister & your Dad too"...

Of course you know there's a backstory that would typically follow this paragraph right? Well, there would be but I'm trying not to be so tragic in 08. Call it a resolution. So here's the compact cheery explanation needed to progress through to the next paragraph. My father is a father from a distance. A loving man whom I've never had the pleasure of being on the receiving end. I'm sure he meant well in his absence. Sometimes it really just does not work out. Ugh, that was hard. Point blank, we don't talk.

So, yesterday when she asks about that side of the family (my brother and sister are only my half, a half that sometimes I forget I have), I surprise myself by saying "Well, I'm having issues right now with my feelings towards my Dad"..Why, Mommy? (you knew that was coming) "Well...because my Dad wasn't there when I was smaller." Why Mommy? "I'm not really sure, but my issue is I felt like he never loved me" ....

"Well Mommy, parents can never stop loving you, you know? They just can't. Like God made them have to always love you. You can't stop loving me, right?" she says & continues putting together her floor puzzle, unkowingly putting together some broken pieces of me at the same time.

"You're right" I say.

She makes everything so simple.