Happy Birthday Stephen

Today is my nephew Stephen's 22nd birthday. I called his cell phone this morning and sang happy birthday to him. He was asleep so didn't answer. What a horrid surprise when he woke to hear my voice singing to him. I usually tell him my present to him is my not singing. I decided after all this time, he should suffer thru my singing.

I remember when he was 14 like it was yesterday. He was such a stoic little trooper when his dad died. More the adult than most kids his age. What a tragedy for one so young to lose his dad.

I remember when he was 2 or 3. He would sit in my lap and want to push the buttons on my calculator. He never tired of it. I would eventually have to tell him it was broken.

I also remember him standing on the table looking out the kitchen window to the highway across the grape vineyard and looking for diesel trucks to go by. His grandpa, dad, and uncle were all truckers. He was so into trucks. He would carry around a pad and paper to take down his "patch" (dispatch for the next day's truck run). He was totally convinced that he could get into a truck and drive it. I have no doubt he probably could have.

He was running a lawnmower at 3 or 4. At 2 put the car in gear and ran it thru the garage wall. Fell from a tree and broke his leg at about 3yrs. And about 5 or 6 could take the air cleaner off the lawnmower when it wouldn't start and use his hand to baffle it and get it started.

Grandma was constantly keeping watch to make sure the only tire he took off of the bike was the front one. She was worried if he took the back one off, it wouldn't get back together right. He would take the front wheel off, put it back on several times a day. Just trying to be a mechanic.

I remember him in the back of my dad's pickup "helping" his grandpa do mechanic work. He would rummage around in all the greasy parts and tools. He would be covered with grease. Grandma would let him have a good time, then would stick him in a tub and wash him down.

Such beautiful memories of a now grown up young man with a very bright future ahead of him. Happy Birthday Stephen. I love you.