Rarely do you meet people who touch your life in such a way that speaks to the core of who you are. Rarely do you meet people who do not waiver on their beliefs but aren’t hostile towards  you for yours. Not a lot of people can speak their mind with such confidence and stature in such a loving way. I definitely don’t meet a lot of people who never missed the chance to tell you how special you were to the world!

Yesterday morning on May 29th heaven gained this man. My stepdad, Steve, was not someone I talked to daily but was someone who touched my soul. When we talked it was never superficial conversation, it was always about something we both had a passion for. We did not always agree, but we both loved to speak our minds and then have a good laugh after the “discussion.” He made me laugh, and he taught me how to be courageous.

He fueled my love of writing. He was such a smart man, and he was such an eloquent writer. He often left personalized notes in books he gave or presents we got, and he ALWAYS signed his name, SPL! I wondered how I would be able to write in my blog and get people to understand how special he truly was. My heart hurts, my families hearts hurt, and my mother’s heart hurts. We will miss hearing his laugh. We will miss him playing endless games with our kids, his grand kids. We will miss hearing him read stories and we will most certainly miss him singing the same silly songs over and over! We know it was his time but that does not diminish our hurt.

In February Steve sent me a package that I knew was coming but I did not know he had filled it with some goodies. He often did things at random, but they always meant the world to the person he did them for! He left me a hilarious letter and a bound book of some of his poems he had written over the year. I placed the book on my desk in my, “to read when I have free time pile.” Oh how I wish I had taken just a moment to start reading it sooner. I would have been able to tell him how wonderful I thought it was and how much it meant to me that he would share such a gift with me. I’m sure none of us will be surprised  one day when we find out he was some acclaimed ghost writer. Years ago in a very terrible time in my life Steve gave me a poem he had written. I don’t know if it was written for me or if it was just one he had saved, but I cherished it. It has hung by my bed in every house I have lived in over the years. When I have bad days I read it and smile and I will continue to do so, “until we meet again, just a wink down the Yellow Brick Road….” (this was the last line in the last letter he wrote to me in February)

THAWTS – By Stephen P. Lesko

If all the Frogs were Princes, and all of the Ladies Queens, If all of the World was a Castle, and all of the Guards, Jellybeans….

There might be no today nor tomorrow, Let all of the Past roll away, With silver soft sewn int he moonbeams, and rainbows at break of day…

Then all the boys who would live there, And all of the girls, dressed in gold, Might freeze in that magical moment, Of storybook legends told….

There children would speak in sweet visions, Perhaps it would be you or me, Enchanted in innocent beauty, and forge all the Royal Decrees…

“Let all of this life’s dreary hatred, rise like an army to war, and march on with fear, discontentment, to be banished from here, evermore…”

“Let poverty ne’er be remembered, and hunger-a word long forgot, with want, and with need, desperation, to never return to this spot….”

“Let Wind-songs, and Carols, and Poems, flow through the twilight’s deep mist, and every new babe fore the nite-tide, be tucked in its cradle, soft kissed…”

“Let gentleness carve us the roadways, and love be the street lamps at night, let stars be the wonders we wish on, and wishes go soaring like kites…”

Growing old- would only be- a memory….. You and I- would be nothing but dreams… If all the Frogs, were Princes…. and all of the Ladies, Queens….