To all of you

To all my Keepers!!!!!!!  
 
Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. 
 
Their best friends lived barely a wave away. 
 
I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a 
house dress, lawn mower in one hand, and dish-towel in the other. 
 
 

It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, 
screen 
door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. 
 
 
 
Things we keep. 

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. 

 

All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. 
Waste meant affluence. 



Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more. 
 
But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth 
of 
the hospital room, I was struc k with the pain of learning that sometimes 
there isn't any more. 

Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away...never 
to 
return. 
 

 
So... 

 
 
While we have it... it's best we love it... And care for it.... And fix it 
when it's broken..... And heal it when it's sick. 
 
This is true... For marriage.... And old cars.... And children with bad 
report cards..... Dogs and cats with bad hips.... And aging parents.... 
And 
grandparents. 
 
 
 
We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. Some 
things 
we keep. 
 

 
Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with. 
 
There are just some things that make life important, like people we know 
who 
are special.... And so, we keep them close! 
 
I received this from someone who thinks I am a 'keeper', so I've sent it 
to 
the people I think of in the same way...............which is all of you!!!!!!!

 

Love to all...................CINDY