Ramblings, Incoherent Thought and Family

Dearest Mom; It's been over a year since you left us. God we miss you. We've begun the process of moving on...and it hasn't been all easy...but you raised and taught us well. The kids are doing ok. They miss you a ton...especially Billy...but they still laugh and smile and when Brookie starts getting mischievous I swear that grin she gets...that's yours. You're still a presence Mom...and I don't see that ending anytime soon. I'm writing though from an airplane...because what you told me would happen has. I'm flying home from Sun City AZ...where I just spent the last week and a half getting Dad setup. It was an amazing road trip Mom...and I found myself thinking a lot about the trip we took across country in 1987. Dad and I had a blast. We kinda...pushed it. As in forgetting we stayed in Joplin MO the second night of our trip in 87...so figured we could make it from Greenfield IL to Amarillo TX in 12 hours. The answer is...NO it can't be don...

I was going to start this with a take on the Barenaked Ladies tune “One Week”…and then realized that while my tongue-in-cheek humor serves me well in times of extreme stress and anxiety…that there are times when it’s ok to FEEL the pain and the hurt and that there is value in it (with conditions)…so instead I open with this thought…   God I miss you Mom.   This past year…what a whirlwind. Every day seemed to stretch and fly at the same time like the space/time continuum was thumbing its nose at us.     Her death at 11:04 seemed to be a watershed moment for me and mine.   Like the night of February 11, 2012 for me…2/16/02, 1/19/1991 and others.   A day I’ll remember always…that was normal until something extraordinary occurred that would forever shape the days that followed.   I’m changed of course by it…and comforted by it.   I look at the recent events surrounding the death of Robin Williams...and how his children are fe...

We’d gotten the call.   After a rough pregnancy…my sister was going to deliver.     My wife at the time and I got into our car with directions on how to get to Syracuse’s hospital…and we were off.   We arrived and Mom and Dad were there along with Aunt Shirley.   The worry was evident on Mom’s face.   She’d been into see her.   My sister had had a ROUGH time.   Bloodtype mismatch, many false contractions, general moodiness (that appears to be the only holdover from the pregnancy that never left) and it was all coming to this.   The name had been picked…and so it was time.     Today was the day William Edward Lisk was to be born.   To this point…it had seemed like this branch of the Benson tree was going to not branch.   It’d been discovered a year earlier…that I was unable to father a baby through some medical jargon that was too hard for me to hear the first time…let alone rehash in writing.   S...

It was a Sunday morning.  I affected my fake Irish accent (quite well I might add) and spent the day saying 'Top o' da mornin'.  Darby O'Gill was on and I was watching it with Mom before we decided we had to get out to Betty's. So we did.  We drove out there and had a great day.  We were going to celebrate Mom's birthday...her 66th.  It was a nice day to go.  Not a lot of snow. It was also the day I'd rediscover KFC.  See...for 12 years in a show of solidarity to Debi...I'd vowed not to eat KFC as she asked me to.  I'm sure there's some humanitarian, ASPCA type reason for it...probably because they do genetic alteration to make each piece of chicken taste like a slice of heaven.  I don't know...but I do know that on this day my Dad introduced me to the KFC bowl and well...I fell in love.  How can any man resist boneless chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and gravy all mixed together.  It's like 4 great tastes that = awesome.  I...