Beauty and Grace

Sporting her new reading glasses for us to take a look, our beautiful mom lit up the room with her smile. Our Sunday dinner went on the road to a little sandwich shop atop the parking lot of the BiMart Shopping Center. Now, one would think that there would be more special places for a family to meet, but, really, this place holds history for all of us. To the right of this scene, is a little Radio Shack store that my dad opened when we were in high school. It's not ours any more, but my sister and I went through our teen years working along side mom and dad in this little store, walking up this very parking lot to the little restaurant on the top of the parking lot, sharing burgers, sodas and plenty of good times.

My sister and I learned a lot about business, serving the public, doing bookwork and discipline there. My mom, who still lights up our world, kept it all afloat with her marvelous bookkeeping and still took care of our home. She's amazing, our hats go off to her (although we weren't wearing hats).

It was at this store that I first met my Beloved Paul, who was one of our customers. He used to walk into the store and I, being a bratty teen, would mimic one of the other salesmen and tease him, saying, "No Paul, wrong!" Now, imagine how mean that was!! Paul, always in good humor, chuckled and came back again and again, buying parts he may never use.

No doubt, my sister's husband took a little teasing there too!

My dad was wonderful with the customers, and had the joy of introducing the Commodore computer to the area.

This parking lot, and having all of us together today, means the world to me. I'm so glad this has always been a thriving little corner of our community.

Thanks mom, for permission to use this today!