Tuesdays With Pappo: "Family Foundation"

TUESDAYS WITH PAPPO

liz etheridge sekerke

Yesterday Pappo asked me, as he does most every week, whether I thought he and Mom did a decent job of raising us three kids and what I thought he should have done differently.

As we sat there in the Braums Ice Cream booth, I thought about his question.....about how I could provide an answer that would satisfy this need he has to know he didn’t fail as a Father.

I looked down and saw a square white napkin laying on the table. It reminded me of a slab of fresh concrete. I placed it in the middle of the table.....grabbed a few french fries and told him to pretend this was a concrete foundation for a house and these french fries were his family (enter a sweet giggle from him ). I explained this slab was the foundation he and Mom had built by pouring into us about a God who loves and cares deeply for us. And that if we just put our trust in God instead of ourselves and allowed Him to guide our lives and steps.....our foundation would never crack.

I reminded Dad that all three of his kids had built their own lives on this very foundation he and Mom had poured for us. Even though our lives all looked radically different....and we had all suffered damage from winds of hardships and storms of struggles in our lives, and yes, could have chosen to build our lives on a different foundation than the one he and Mom built for us....we didn't. Our foundation was sound.

I saw tears in his eyes as he looked at the napkin with the family of french fries before him. I hope and pray those tears were tears of realization that he had, indeed, not failed as a Dad.....as my Pappo.

Tuesdays With Pappo: Toilet Paper Origami

TUESDAYS WITH PAPPO

#tuesdayswithpappo                                                                                         8-29-2024

Every - Single - Week....while visiting my Pappo, he asks me the same question: "Softie, what new thing can I learn?"

If you've been reading Tuesdays With Pappo for any amount of time, you know Dad has a constant need to "learn" new things. It's built into him...it's in his DNA...he's always had a hankering to learn new things. He's tried most everything including the piano, the sewing machine, the mandolin, Youtube, repairing walkers, writing stories, knitting and yes, reluctantly...embroidering, And that's just in the last 12 months!

As we ate our burger and grilled cheese sandwiches this past week at a little hole-in-the-wall diner near his home, he once again asked me the weekly question:

"What new thing do you think I could learn to do?"

Truth is, he's searching for his "purpose" at the ripe old age of 96.  His body isn't able to move like it used to.....his pace is slower....there's a limp that didn't used to be there, and his mind.... well....his mind is still 26.

But this week, I arrived with the perfect answer to the weekly question:

Toilet-Paper-Origami

As I tried selling him on the idea that there was beauty in having fetching toilet paper folds on the role, he looked up from his burger with a scowl. "Just hear me out", I said. We emprovised by tearing off a long role of paper towels that were serving as napkins on our table and started folding. Before we knew it, we had a faux-toilet-paper-origami masterpiece made out of paper towels. Admittedly, he wasn't nearly as excited about it as I was, but it didn't matter! We showed it to everyone we met and they were WOWED and AMAZED....and I'm pretty sure I saw a small satisfied smile on his face.

SUCCESS......until next week!

Tuesdays With Pappo - Illegal Ties

 TUESDAYS WITH PAPPO

#tuesdayswithpappo

As Pappo and I returned to his Independent Living Center from our regular Cotton Patch lunch a few weeks ago, he informed me they had outlawed wearing a tie where he lived.

After a quick shake-of-my-head in disbelief, I asked him "Why??". He "claimed" he didn't know why but he thought someone died from wearing a tie there or something. But he wasn't sure.

We talked a little longer on this bizarre-illegal-tie-wearing-law when it suddenly came to me how he could get around it. I told him I needed to measure his neck first and, after digging through my purse and puling out my trusty always-with-me tape measure, I turned around to see this: His hands wrapped tightly around his neck to keep me away.

Seriously, all I wanted to do was measure him for a clergy collar as a tie-substitute. I thought it was a brilliant idea and a real knee-slapper if he wore it to his non-Catholic church.

He disagreed.

Tuesdays With Pappo - "I Have An Addiction"

 TUESDAYS WITH PAPPO

#tuesdayswithpappo

I received a voice message from my Pappo earlier this week asking me to call him as he had something very important to discuss with me. Now, please understand, with Pappo, that could be anything from “I’ve fallen and can’t get up” to “I’m really thinking I need to learn how to play the mandolin”.

So as I was heading home from HEB, I gave him a call back. Here’s how that conversation went:

PAPPO: ”Softie, I’ve discovered something. I have an addiction.”

LIZ: “An addiction? To what?”

PAPPO: “My walker”.

LIZ: “How do you have an addiction to your walker, Pappo?”

PAPPO: “I use it too much. But thats not what I want to ask you. I want to know where I can get a treadmill?”

LIZ: (Cleaning off the steering wheel where coffee just spit out her nose) Pappo, I think that’s a bad idea.

Between my sister and I, we convinced him he HAS a treadmill....it was the long, long Highway-to-Houston-Hallway just outside his independent living apartment door he might want to try walking instead.

PAPPO: “Oh....that’s a good idea!”

Our Molly - 2007 - 2024

Thank You, Molly, for bringing such JOY into our lives for so many years.

Thank You for putting up with us....for encouraging us....for forgiving us when we didn't feed you on time.

Thank You for crawling into our laps when we were sad....

Thank You for trusting us to keep you safe and to provide entertainment for you when you were bored.

And when we didn't deserve to be loved because we left you too long or rubbed your nose in things you couldn't help, you loved us anyway. Unconditionally.

I learned a lot from you, Molly. Thank You for allowing us to be YOUR parents. We will always love you.

Chapter 64

 

Today......Marks the Beginning of Chapter 64 in the Life of Liz.

I love getting older. Sounds crazy I know, but I wouldn’t reverse the clock for all the money in the world. If anything, I would increase the clock speed as I move forward into the future.

And there's just something about being another year older that causes you to reflect back on Chapters 63 or 44 or 27 or look ahead to Chapters 65 or 72 or 86 in your life, right? 

To look at where you’ve been......and to where you’re going. 

To the Shipwrecks in your life....and to the Rescues. 

To the Griefs.....and to the Restorations.

When you look back on spent chapters in your life, you are able to see with clarity....20-20 vision....the pouring out of Grace you received through those very Rescues and Restorations by the One who numbered your days when He created you. You remember the sufferings, yes.....but you also see the ripples from your endurance muscles increasing because of those Chapters of Suffering.

"Suffering Produces Endurance.....” 

Romans 5:3

I am finding with each passing year, the things I used to hold tightly to my chest....you know, those things of “this” world that distract me and I thought were important and necessary....are anything but. They are just noisy “things”. And they kept me looking “back” more than looking “forward”. Forward past the final chapter in the Book Of Liz to a new book:

A book titled, “Eternity”.

Can't wait to read Chapter 64!!

Tuesdays With Pappo: Happy Pappo Day!

#tuesdayswithpappo

Happy Father's Day, Pappo......

Thank You for being MY Pappo....even when we have to handcuff you to the tech at your doctors office.

You are deeply and dearly loved by your Softie.  

Blessings Come In Many Shapes

 June 14, 2024

On August 9, 2016.......this little treasure came into my life as a Blessing by a good friend.....who saw a need and filled it. Our entire home had flooded 8 months earlier.....we had just moved back into the restored home and were without a place to put our clothes........

A kind man from our church heard of our need.....loaded up his antique dresser that had been in his family for many years into the bed of his pickup truck.....and drove it to our home.

Even though I never knew his family, this antique dresser always made me feel a part of his family. Like I had a piece of their DNA or something.

I moved 5x since that original delivery to our post-flooded lake house. And it has moved with me each time. From our lake house to the little blue cabin on the lake to my house in Allen to a storage Pod to our home today.

It has served many purposes over the years....far more than just holding our clothes...but today, I said goodbye and thanked it for being SO good to me as it went to a new home....a new person to bless....to a farm house much like the one it originally lived in. I understand its new home will be in a farmhouse photography studio where it just might become a celebrity among families making memories and continuing to deliver blessings to everyone who crosses its path.

And my heart is full because..... IT LIVES ON.

UPDATE:

And here is where it lives now.....

https://www.instagram.com/thelittleglassshack?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Kindness of A Friend

 On August 9, 2016.......this little treasure came into my life as a Blessing by a good friend.....who saw a need and filled it. Our entire home had flooded 8 months earlier.....we had just moved back into the restored home and were without a place to put our clothes........

A kind man from our church heard of our need.....loaded up his antique dresser that had been in his family for many years into the bed of his pickup truck.....and drove it to our home.

Even though I never knew his family, this antique dresser always made me feel a part of his family. Like I had a piece of their DNA or something.

I moved 5x since that original delivery to our post-flooded lake house. And it has moved with me each time. From our lake house to the little blue cabin on the lake to my house in Allen to a storage Pod to our home today.

It has served many purposes over the years....far more than just holding our clothes...but today, I said goodbye and thanked it for being SO good to me as it went to a new home....a new person to bless....to a farm house much like the one it originally lived in. I understand its new home will be in a farmhouse photography studio where it just might become a celebrity among families making memories and continuing to deliver blessings to everyone who crosses its path.

And my heart is full because..... IT LIVES ON.

UPDATE:

And here is where it lives now.....

https://www.instagram.com/thelittleglassshack?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

It's Been A Week.....A GREAT Week!!

 It's been a week of Cousins...Weddings....Beaches..... Babies......Butterflies....Peach Ice Cream and Great Great Friends!

A whirlwind week of 4:30 am departures.....Took 2 states to get the dang Appleplay map to work in the car....Guessing 70's TV Theme Song Trivia on the Highway ......Thunderstorms..... Gorgeous Garden Weddings......Awesome Calloway Cousins..... Dancing..... Toasting.....Alligators.....Grasshoppers.....Little Girls Named Juniper....Sweet Geogia Cousins.....Remembering Sweet-Home-Alabama-Grandma-In-the-Woods on Hwy. 22......Peach Ice Cream and Fried Pies....and the Very Best of Friends named LaRue.

This week has been full......and wonderful.....and a Gift straight-up from God's hands to ours. Tomorrow we head home.....but not until we leave Tupelo, Mississippi (home of Elvis!!) and jump on the Natchez Trace Parkway for a day of incredible beauty!

Here’s to all the places we went. And here’s to all the places we‘ll go. And here’s to me, whispering again and again and again and again: I love you, Wayne. Thanks for making this adventure 

magical!