Grandma Sandy and I traveled to Bill and Laurie’s new home in Potomac, Maryland
to help Stevie celebrate his eighth birthday, March 27, 2005. We arrived on Friday, and
the boys immediately took me upstairs to show me Ben’s new bunk beds, their new lava
lamps, and the new baby furniture for Haylie, who would be born June 23. After dinner,
sprawled on the floor in Ben’s room, the boys urged me to draw Mickey Mouse, one for
each of them, naturally. They drew in the colors with the new Crayola marker pens that
Grandma Sandy had bought. Then, Stevie copied a Jayhawk from an old Kansas
basketball program ( Bill and Laurie met at K.U.). Bill suggested they send
their drawings, accompanied by a letter, to Keith Langford, a K.U. basketball player.
Stevie especially liked him because they are both lefties. The boys wrote their ages,
eight and five, and asked for autographs.
Bill gave the boys a bath while I watched from a safe distance. They urged me to
come close, but I declined, for I was not in the mood to get splashed and soaked as I
always did when I gave them the bath. (Whenever I bathed them, I always pleaded,
“Please boys, whatever you do, please don’t splash Grandpa!”) Then I laid down with
them and we listened to the rain pelting down on the ceiling skylight.
Sunday, as we prepared to return to Tulsa, Stevie expressed sorrow: “Why can’t you
stay longer? Why can’t you move to Maryland and live near us?
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