THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 23, 1994 TAG: 9408230037
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MY FAMILY LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
JUST YESTERDAY, I sat on this same pew, cradling you in my arms - so beautiful in your long, white gown as we waited for you to be baptized, the sunlight streaming through stained glass.
Your tiny fingers curled around my pinkie, and I prayed you would grow up to be healthy, strong and wise.
Just yesterday. Or so it seems, as the candlelight flickers in the windowsills and I see you standing there, so radiant in another long, white gown.
It seems just yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital and placed your porta-crib in front of the living room window so the sunlight would help clear up your jaundice. I prayed that you would be all right.
Wasn't that just yesterday?
Perhaps it was the day before.
Yesterday, it seems, you climbed up into that yellow bus, Barbie lunch box in tow, the sunlight dancing on the auburn highlights in your curls. I fought back tears as I watched you trying to sprout your wings, taking those tentative, baby steps out into the world and away from me.
Or was it yesterday that you pirouetted across the stage in your pink tutu? After the recital, you announced you were either going to be a ballerina or a Mack truck driver when you grew up. Later, you traded those dreams for others, yet you always worked so diligently to make your dreams come true. And when they didn't, you somehow handled the disappointment and pursued others.
Wasn't it yesterday that you balanced so precariously on that narrow beam in your tie-dyed body suit, your wayward curls captured in a ponytail? You teetered just the same between girlish giggles and a young woman's poise.
Or was it the summer day you left with the Girl Scouts, lugging your sleeping bag and camping gear? I later found out you were homesick and struggled to get to sleep that night.
Wasn't it yesterday that we listened to the judge's stern advice before he handed me your driver's license to give to you at the appropriate time? I could have told him not to worry, that you would be a careful driver. I trusted you and those friends who stood with you that day as you piled into cars and left for parties.
Just yesterday, I'm sure, you were baby-sitting, then later, life-guarding and doing other jobs, managing your own money and learning responsibility.
Or was it yesterday that you went to prom in that beautiful, long white gown with a bodice of black sequins? Your well-mannered date was the same young boy you had called ``Mr. Right'' several years earlier, the same handsome man who stands there beside you today in a black tuxedo.
Surely, it was only yesterday that we visited college campuses, and you dreamed more dreams and set new goals, then continued working step by step to accomplish them. By then, each step was a giant leap toward independence.
Certainly it was not long ago that you marched across the sun-drenched campus you had chosen and received your diploma, your wings about to burst through your long, black robe.
The yesterdays flash through my mind like a movie on fast forward, as I dab my eyes with my handkerchief. But the tears won't stop.
I had known they would come but not in such a flood. And not just now.
Somehow, I listened to the strands of ``Sunrise, Sunset'' without crying. But I was sure my eyes would mist when I saw you start down that aisle - so happy and confident, so full of anticipation.
And yet the tears waited until now, as the two of you stand facing one another, repeating your vows, each promising to care for the other. And suddenly, I realize this is the culmination of all we have worked for - not just these weeks of last-minute preparations, but all those years as you grew from that sometimes timid toddler into this woman now ready to fly.
But these are happy tears, springing from a joy that you both have set goals for your lives and for your life together. And I know you will go from here ready to handle whatever life may bring.
And that's really the very best that any parent can ever pray for. by CNB