These pics are from 18 years ago, and that cute little flower girl is my niece, Tatum. She's all grown up now, and she and one of her sisters, Jill, are both down at A&M. It's incredible how quickly all of that went by!
There's good blood in this family when it comes to the women - Granny Biggs; Grand (Prewitt) and all her sisters; Kim, Kelly and Carol; and this fourth generation - Tatum, Jill, Cate, Ella and Meg. That's not to mention all the 3rd and 4th generation daughters from those other Biggs sisters. They've all been a huge blessing to me and my family, and to Kelly while she was with us. But today I wanted to give the spotlight to my eldest niece Tatum, and thank her for what has turned out to be one of the greatest blessings of my life.
When Kelly passed, my employers were very gracious in allowing me to take my time getting back to the office, but eventually you have to move on and get back to some form of normalcy. Faced with the sudden onset of summer I figured I had to find someone to "babysit" the kids. What I didn't realize at the time was that what I really needed was someone to take complete charge of my household. I knew in my heart who the perfect person was, but she had a summer job already, plus she lives in Rowlett and I knew I needed someone to be in Frisco at the crack of dawn every day and stay until I made it home from work. But I mentioned it to my brother in law anyway, and in short order, Tatum made arrangements with her summer employer and was "all in" for the summer.
When I say "all in," I mean ALL IN. I've used that term for Kelly, and it fit for Tatum too. Many of you got used to me telling you this summer that if you wanted to know if one of the kids could come over, stay the night, go to the movies - whatever - that my response was "Call Tatum - she's in charge." Every day in the Stewart household is like planning the D-day invasion, and Tatum was up to the task. Every time I thought of something I'd forgotten to write down, I'd find out Tatum was one (or many more) steps ahead of me.
The kids never missed a practice or a game, were all well packed for camps and vacations, kept the tradition of the summer "bucket list" alive (and checked off most of the items), beat the Dills in the 2nd annual Stewart-Dill Olympics, built a massive rainy-day pillow/blanket fort, got registered for school, made it to pick up their schedules, met their lockers and walked their schedules, even got all their school supplies, and actually did chores - and on top of all that they were actually loved and nurtured by someone that learned how to love and nurture the way Kelly did.
My poor planning late in the summer resulted in a gap between caregivers. I figured they'd survive a couple of days, at home by themselves. I almost had a mutiny on my hands! I had to call Kim and Carol to the rescue. It's probably not accurate to describe anything my kids have been through as "being spoiled," but they certainly had gotten used to being guided and watched over by someone special.
Tatum and I missed each other the last couple of days before she left to go back to school, because I was off at our lease land in OK shooting and blowing things up with friends, so I never had a proper chance to thank her for what she did for me and my family. I returned from the trip to find that she had managed during those 10 weeks to document in a journal all the funny and touching conversations she'd had with the kids. All five of us will cherish that forever.
But most importantly for all of us (I think including Tatum) we got to take valuable time to grieve and heal. I believe that most in my circumstances would probably have been faced with constant worry, pressure, and outright fear for the safety and well-being of their families. Instead, God gave us Tatum, and because of her our home was filled all summer with peace, love, and laughter - and that adds up to a whole lot of Kelly!
Tatum - we all love you very much, and miss you a ton! Not sure what your plans are for next summer....
No comments:
Post a Comment