Summer Nights

This evening I took a moment to smell the summer night's air. I love the smell of evening this time of year. It always makes me think of those hot summer evenings at Grandpa's when all of our family was together and stayed out until the moon shined. I remember catching lightning bugs and swinging on our tire swing under one of our many huge oak trees. I have been thinking alot about him lately. How he is missing everything that is happening in my life now.

I think its strange to realize that Andrew never got to meet him. I have a feeling they would have liked each other. I dont know if Andrew fully understands what he meant to me. I want to honor my family's last name. My grandfather always taught me to be proud of who I was and and the family I came from. I fully agree, I had a wonderful smart Grandmother who had an amazing education, traveled all over the world and raised two kids. A Grandfather who loved us more than anything. He was an inventor and both of them were well known in our community in Ohio. I couldnt walk down the street without someone knowing my family. I miss that.

When I sit here on the porch on these summer nights I think of them. My mother and I do this often. It seems that lately everywhere I turn, some smell, how someone looks, or some place reminds me of them. I get choked up and sometimes think that these past 6 years never happened. That he is still here and every sunday I am gonna walk into that big beautiful house in the country and strike up a conversation with him. But then I blink and I am back to present day. I hope my children appreciate where they came from the way I do one day. I hope they understand that their family values were passed down from generation to generation. I know I do. I want to make my grandfather and my family proud. I am a Stevenson. And when I sleep under the stars in these few summer nights we have left this year...I will think of that. And how I one day hope to be like him.