Today is a hard day. Usually I would have been planning for weeks what day I would arrive at my parent’s house in central Maine. Dad and I would have been talking every night and watching the weather. Today since it is snowing I would have left last night. I would be sitting next to the wood fire eating Hungarian goodies with my Dad and waiting for Mom and Tony to come home from work. Today we would have complained about the snow and Dad might have been plowing. I would do work or read and just enjoy the comfort of home—literally always sitting next to the woodstove. Thanksgiving generally was just Tony, Mom, Dad, and I. However—last year it became Nicole, Tony, Adam, me, Mom, and Dad J
After Adam had to go back to work last year I remained with my parent’s for a few days. I loved spending the days working with my Dad, cleaning and chatting with my Dad. My Mom would go to work leaving around 7:30am and not come home until around 7pm so it was literally just my Dad and I all day. Anyway, this time last year not in a million years could I have imagined how different everything would look a year later.
Unfortunately my Dad lost his last and closest brother last year on Thanksgiving. My Dad was the baby in his family—he was 68. His brother was 82 I think when he died. Sadly on this day last year my Dad’s cat was hit by a car. Little did we know that a few days from now my brother would run into the house exclaiming “there’s a cat…there’s a cat in the woodshed” Sure enough if you listened outside you heard the tiny cries “mew, mew” That is where the story of Resc comes in. You see Resc my cat is a special little fellow because he is one of the only memories I have recently in life that includes both my Dad and my brother.
My brother went to work—texting me on the hour every hour to see if we had rescued the cat in the woodshed yet. My Dad and I set to work trying to figure out where the cat was in the woodshed. I climbed to the top of the pile….but I didn’t see him. We were worried he was actually in the middle of the pile somewhere. Finally I realized he was moving from one end of the woodshed to the other while he was meowing. I asked Dad if he could be under the shed….so I laid on the ground around the back of the woodshed where you could see under it a bit and sure enough there was Resc. Problem was how would we get him out? He didn’t know what a human was he had never seen one in his life….and I couldn’t just reach in and grab him.
Dad decided he could dig under the woodshed…..
He got less than one dig in before he changed his mind. He realized there was a much better way—he could take up the floorboards on part of the woodshed and we would have to hope the little kitten came out. We went down the road to the store to get some canned cat food—and we left the food there with some milk to try and get Resc to climb out. We went inside and waited. About 15 minutes later Dad looks out the window and says “Ill be….there he is” I couldn’t believe it—Resc had come out from under the shed.
The problem was how would we catch him without him running back under the shed? So we crept outside and tried to sneak up on him. Dad quickly put down the boards and I tried to grab him. He went into the corner and I reached out and got him. He was a tiny little guy. He wasn’t mean—he was so sweet! We immediately took him inside and gave him some food. He scarfed it down….and just wanted to be around people. See images below.
I texted my brother—he couldn’t wait to meet the little guy. I had been texting Adam about this craziness all day—so I sent Adam pictures. Of course I asked “can we keep him?” When I left for Biddeford a few days later—I had my new cat in tow. Dad named him Rescue and we called him “Resc” for short. When people asked why I didn’t change him name I told them because my Dad named him—and since cats live so long he might outlive my Dad. That’s some messed up foreshadowing.
A year later and not only did my Dad die but my brother did too. I guess as awful as this is what I am getting at is Dream Big—think big—because when you look back you never could have dreamt where you came from—or what might happen. For sure this Thanksgiving—make a point to make memories—and spend time with those who are close to you—because you never know what life has in store. In a year—I met the man of my dreams, did some great photography things, got a cat, and lost my Dad and my brother. Talk about things looking different this year than last. Who knows what next year will look like. Below is Resc at one year old.