Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. As a child, we would dress up and spend the entire evening trick-or-treating. It used to be safe to go without parents, and we would not come home until 8:30 or 9:00, bags filled completely full of candy. Once I started teaching, I would dress up in crazy costumes, and at The Independent School, people could count on me becoming Cousin Itt, a dwarf, a shark, or something else! It was great wandering around the school, and usually people couldn't figure out who was under that costume until they saw my shoes!
Unfortunately, for the past 12 years, Halloween has been a holiday of mixed and conflicting feelings. In 2000, I had taken my shark costume to school, but I had a meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Garvey first. I was going to wander the halls after that. It never happened, as about 9:00 that morning I received a phone call that my dad had passed away unexpectedly. Mr. and Mrs. Garvey were with me when I received my news, and suddenly, I was on auto-pilot. I will never forget it. We flew home that day, passed out candy that night in Albuquerque, and proceeded with funeral arrangements. Mind you, this was 9 days after Don's mom had passed away.
Needless to say, Halloween is also sad for me.
But Dad would have hated to think his passing would make us quit enjoying the fun of Halloween. So after two years or so, I decided I needed to go on with dressing up because it is fun. Since I have retired, I pull out the costumes and visit businesses and people I know, cookies in hand. This year I mixed it up a little, appearing as Cheesie, the dwarf, at a few places, and Cousin Itt at others. I even went to Rotary as Cousin Itt. It unnerved a few people since Cousin Itt only squeaks and they had no idea who was under Cousin Itt's crazy costume. Eventually a few people figured it out . . . but if I had taken off my purple shirt, I am not sure anyone, except Don, would have known!
Dad's passing was very sad and shocking, and I will never forget him, but I know he would say, "Life goes on, Karen; get with living it." So I do my best to enjoy every day, just the way he would have wanted it.
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