The Storyteller

My Papa Bud is an incredible storyteller.

Sometimes his stories are fictional, sometimes factual and sometimes a mix of both but nevertheless, his stories always put a smile on my face.

They would also get in me in trouble when I was smaller. I believed everything Papa Bud said. And sometimes, this caused some conflict.

When I was 3 he told me the story of how when I grew up, I would become a boy and we would go fishing on his bass boat together.

I took it to heart! I wanted to go on that bass boat so badly! I decided from that point on, I was going to change my name to ROBIN----after Batman's sidekick of course.


Once while shopping with Mama Jo (Papa's wife and my grandmother), I wandered away from her side. I hid under a rack of jeans.

Mama Jo frantically called for me. She even had the store manager go on the overhead system to alert shoppers to be on the lookout for a small girl named TRINITY.

A man looking thru the rack of jeans found me. He asked me, "Is your name Trinity"?
I said, "No. I'm Robin".

Mama Jo just happened to be a few feet away from this exchange and she pulled me out of that rack of jeans lightning fast and proceeded to spank my butt all the way to the car.

That was the last time I was Robin.

Yesterday I stopped by Papa Bud's & Mama Jo's house for a visit. Papa Bud was having a horrible day. He had fallen twice and was a little shaken up.

While we were talking he seemed to have trouble remembering what we were talking about. This has never happened before.

His memory and mind have always been sharp as a tack.

I am praying this was just due to him being a little shaken up and upset by his falls and not something going on within his mind.

I left heartbroken. His heart disease and diabetes have robbed him of the use of his arms and legs. But I was always comforted that inside he still was Papa, even if he couldn't use his hands or walk with his feet.

His mind, his beautiful sensitive, detailed, wonderful storytelling mind was still Papa. And I am praying that it will remain so.