This boy. Every day the memories that I have come up make me smile and cry at the same time.
Parker was so stinking cute. He was so kind and sweet and everything that made him Parker. When he was 3 and in preschool I remember getting notice that the Lions Club was going to come to his school for a vision test. I thought, hey, it's free so let's give it a try. We were in the library of the school where the men from the Lions Club were setting up their equipment. It was an electronic thing, looking mostly like some sort of camera. The gentlemen were of a certain age and having issues getting the thing to work. I remember thinking how cute this all was, the age difference between the kids that were all 3 year olds and what could possibly be their great grandfathers. They eventually figured it all out, Parker had his test and they printed out a little receipt like from an old fashioned cash register. I had no idea how to read the information on the paper but as one of the gentleman handed it to me he said "you might want to make an appointment with an eye doctor for this little guy". I did and so started Parker wearing glasses.
Parker was so excited at the thought of wearing glasses and he was so stinking cute with them on. His vision was awful - he was so farsighted it all made sense why he never wanted to read or color or do anything close up - he couldn't see!
So we went to Dr. Snyder - the best pediatric optometrist ever - and she got him all set up. These were his first pair of glasses. He wore them all the time, except for sports. I always hoped that he wouldn't get teased or bullied for wearing glasses at such a young age, but that was never an issue for him. He had a lot of things going against him most of his life - glasses, severe asthma, speech problems, height problems (lol). None of these things stopped him. He had such a bright personality that the other kids didn't even notice. All they wanted was to be his friend.
I love and miss you everyday - you will always be with me till we meet again.
