The Biggest Heart…

Vetran's Day 2011

What does a forty-three year-old man do when he marries for the first time…and suddenly finds himself with three daughters…and in less than 15 months two grandchildren…

In my experience…he grows a bigger heart…

A heart big enough to embrace the rapid changes to his once quiet life…

A heart big enough not to buck the system of this family he found himself a part of…but…allowing us to become who and what we were on the way to becoming…and allowing Mama to do the directing and correcting…as we each found our places…

A heart big enough to send money to a daughter calling from the Holiday Inn parking lot in Greenville, SC who is in early labor…and the hospital is requiring cash up front…

A heart big enough to count the toes of that first grandchild…and marvel that…she’s just like a little person…must be why he called the grandchildren…little people…for years…

A heart big enough to endure the continual exchange of maternity clothes and itty bitty baby clothes...taking place in the laundry room…as the grandchild number climbed to four in three and a half years…

A heart big enough to send money…when it was needed…or at least never blink when Mama did…a heart big enough to load yet another truck as we moved from place to place…

A heart big enough to survive an instant teenager…complete with a constantly present best friend…and all the enthusiasm of youth…hence why he often said…speak softly like a little lady…even though…it never worked…

A heart big enough to love three more grandchildren…making a total of seven…

A heart big enough to play the same games with the grandkids…over and over…and over again…and to endure…some not so fun games…taking place as he napped…like…being hit on the head…covered with newspapers…and tied up…

A heart big enough to dole out a quarter every time those greedy little mouths uttered…Bald is Beautiful…

A heart big enough…to always find room in the car for those same kids…anytime a trip was to be taken…

A heart big enough to take his Mother-in-law to the beauty shop every Saturday morning for years…

A heart big enough to…welcome us…children and grandchildren alike…back home…at various and asunder times…when life circumstances found us needing a place to stay for a bit…

A heart big enough to find a place for 12 great grandchildren…even though the games stopped as his health failed…he loved each of them as they came into our family…

A heart so big…that I could continue writing for days…and never get it all written…so…I will just thank you…Pop…for coming into our lives…our hearts are all a lot bigger because of you and your love…

Jane

In loving memory of Doyle Creswell Carson…born January 21, 1923…died December 24, 2011…Christmas Eve…as somehow in my heart I knew he would…