When I was in 7th grade I had to rake the leaves in my Gramma’s yard. She had a small house in Broad Ripple, but it had huge trees in the front and back.
I did the back first, it was larger. I was losing daylight as I finished raking the front leaves into a huge pile.
I worked my ass off for two hours, blisters on the skin between my thumb and pointer finger. All that hard work and I decided to jump into my big pile of leaves.
The whole time I was outside working, Loretta was inside cooking dinner and occasionally looking out the window to see my progress.
At the moment I took my mighty and foolish leap into the pile of autumn…. My gramma quietly walked out on the front porch. Her “Grandmother sense” knew I was about to waste an afternoon’s work.
I laid in what was left of a pile of leaves strewn across the front lawn and saw my Gramma standing over me shaking her head in disgust.
In the darkness of an early November evening I finished my chore knowing I was going to get scolded….
After we said Grace I looked down at my plate and my Gramma said, “John Stephen…. It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”
Today’s quote!
Eight years earlier my Grampa raked those same leaves on an autumn afternoon. He went inside and laid down to rest and he died in his sleep.
My Gramma was making dinner when she walked into the bedroom and found her husband had left for heaven.
Raking those leaves had more meaning to my Gramma than just a chore for her grandson from Chicago…. It was a lesson in becoming a man.
I’d do anything to sit at that dinner table and eat Brussel sprouts with my Gramma!
6130 Indianola……..
