If you had another chance...

Both my parents are deceased. My mother died in December of 1995 and my father in May of 2001. It goes without saying that I think of them all the time, and often wish for a chance to see them or speak to them again. There are all the obvious questions I would ask. (Are you proud of me?) There are so many things I would want them to see and experience (my children, Steven, my nephews, my house, etc.) But, recently, I've started to think about all the things, BESIDES the obvious, that they've missed.

Some of the things I wish they COULD have seen or experienced:

• The University of Missouri hosting the NCAA baseball regional. (my brother is the head coach at MU.)






• Satellite Radio (all that country music, the Frank Sinatra channel!)






• The election and inauguration of Barack Obama. (I know my dad would have cried)






• Vodka/RedBull (Dick would have especially loved this)






• The Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl. (still in shock about this one)





• The Harry Potter Books, from the first to the last.




• Digital Cameras (wow, they could have deleted all those fuzzy pictures)




• Ipods, cell phones and automatic car door openers




• Will Ferrell




• Lance Armstrong winning the Tour De France, over and over; Michael Phelps' 8 Gold Medals, the Red Sox finally winning the world series, the Cardinals winning again, World Cup festivities, now that I understand it all




• Movies like Slumdog Millionaire and Billy Elliott

Of course, on the opposite spectrum are many things that I'm glad they never had to see. For some reason, this list was much easier to compile:

• Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.




• Monday Night Football moving to Sunday nights.




• The DC Snipers, Scott/Laci Peterson, the death of Princess Diana




• The Tsunami




• the war in Iraq

• athletes carrying guns, athletes shooting the guns, athletes doing drugs




• those horrible new Burger King commercials, the Alltell commercial and "Dancing with the Stars. " (although, truthfully, my mom probably would have loved this one)




• More than anything, 9/11.

So much happens each and every day, and when I look at a list such as this, it's overwhelming to realize how very much they have missed. And, it reiterates how very much I miss them.

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