George Caywood

I wish you could meet my Gina. She is the kind of person when you meet her you want to talk to her, Honestly, She could make a lamp post talk. One of the nice things about her is her Husband Chad. Chad is to his core kind and good. I do not think he ever says I want to be good to George it just comes automatically. This is a story about Gina when she was a middle schooler.

My In laws Burt and Elaine were good to us when my kids were growing up. They had a quality I painfully lack. They threw away the toaster they got for a wedding present in the box in which it came.

In contrast I can not tell you how many times I have scoured my home for my lost key or wallet. Praying that God would help me find them is a prayer God expects from me. One time I asked my loving Nephew David too drive up from San Diego to help me find meds I badly needed. He walked in my place and laid his hand on them in side of one minute.

One year my in laws had given me a beautiful soft ball mitt for Christmas. I was terrified I would lose it before the first time they visited us.

Gina asked me if she could take my mitt to school for P.E. I told her she could but I lectured he on not losing it. Somehow the mitt took on a fabled aura. All the girls wanted to use it.  Using it was a badge of honor.

When I got home from work the next day Jerelyn told me I needed to go see Gina.I went in to the playroom she was sitting there on the couch looking dismayed.

I asked her what was wrong. She said “Daddy after P.E. I put your mitt safely in my locker. Later one of my friends needed to borrow  some socks. She was across the room so I shouted my combination across the room. Every one wants that mitt and I know one of the kids is going to use my combination to steal the mitt.

The thought of facing the in laws without the mitt threw me into a panic. In a second I saw I had a teachable moment with Gina. I knew I could tell her a million times I loved her and it would not mean as much as it would right now with her heart so wide open. I reached for her and gave her a big hug and said ” Gina you are always so important to me. The mitt is just not important next to you.”

She melted in my arms  and we held each other. Sometimes a hug doesn’t do it. That situation demanded a hold. The mitt was there in the morning but she and I still had a great memory’