The Boots

THE BOOTS
By: The Midnight Writer

One day, while at my Mom’s, I went to hang something up for her in the closet and I saw them, his boots. My Daddy’s boots. I stood there and just starred at them, I think I even touched them, probably even smelled the leather. I felt something in my heart. Have you ever felt that feeling? You know, that familiar feeling, like when you hear a certain song on the radio and it takes you to a familiar place in time.
There were many places in time that I associate with those boots. My furthest memory is of my little sister with her light brown hair and big blue eyes and she's standing up in our Daddy's boots. They went all the way up to her hips. I don't have an actual copy of this picture - it's kept only in the gallery of my mind and in the hallways of my heart.
Seeing those boots there on the shelf sent me down those hallways and into the gallery and I can see my Daddy working in the yard and the dust rising up from the ground as he walked so tall in those boots. He didn't just work in the yard in those boots. He wore them as he worked hard to support his family. He wore them to our Sunday family dinners. He wore them to take us and all of our cousins camping every year. He wore them to see my cousins off when they went off to the military. But, he did so much more than that. He wore them to take us to school, to our Open Houses, to all of our football games. He wore them with his navy blue suits on special occasions such as our graduations and walking not just my sister and I down the isle but one of our cousins as well and oh how handsome he was. He wore them to greet his new grandchildren one by one.
You see, I just realized that in all of my memories I see my tall handsome Daddy wearing those boots and never once have I ever seen them just sitting there empty. And though I have tears running down my face as I sit here writing this note, I have to stop and wonder... how often it is that a single pair of boots can bring back so many wonderful memories and yet break my heart all at the same time.
Those boots have been empty for some time now - but we can all still see him walking tall in those boots in the galleries of our mind and in the hallways of our heart.

We miss you Daddy Doug!

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