for Emma

Emma,

   I know I’m not your “for real” granddad. But I have watched you grow since you were a little baby. I missed watching my own children grow up, and now that they are grown and I have “for real” grandkids, they all live far away and I don’t get to watch them grow.

   You are very special to me. I remember in the apartment I lived in when I first met you, you used to make me play follow-the-leader with you and do all kinds of little stunts in the hallway. Laying on our bellies, kicking our feet in the air. You turning in circles, and I had to do it on my knees so I was almost as small as you.

   You helped me plant my first garden in Oklahoma, and tore up half the plants that grew.

   You’re five now. You still wear my t-shirts to keep the paint off you when we break out the paints and make a mess. We still have tea parties, me, a durn near 50 year old man, and you the hostess. And you put WAY too much sugar in our mint tea.

   I always have to shove the tire swing I made for you out of the way when I mow the side yard. I’d had that chain for years, and I’m glad I finally found a good use for it.

   You have allowed me to be a kid when I feel old. You have given me the gift of a child’s love that I cannot get from my own grandchildren so far away, even though I know they love me.

   When I got hurt, you told RoRo that you HAD to be there at the hospital, because I needed YOU to take care of me. You have no idea how true that was.

   You are my Elmer, my Emma, and as it says on the paper you signed that I put on my refrigerator, my ammE.

   I love you Em. I’m glad you allow me to be in your life. And ‘Your Stevie’ will always be: Your Knight.