Goodbye, Papa Charlie

Okay, so the last time I posted, I was heavy hearted. Well, now I know that I just THOUGHT I was heavy hearted. Last Friday, June 22, Mom and Dad's best friend, Charles, passed away. His funeral was Tuesday. Charles had heart surgery between my grandfathers' funerals in April. He never recovered. His family was able to take him home about three hours before he died, and Dad was able to see him about five minutes before he passed away from this life into heaven. Here's a little background on what Charles meant to me and my family...

When my parents moved us here in 1979, we didn't know a soul. My father took a job at the A/E firm where I worked last year. He met Charles, and they became friends. Of course, their wives also became friends. It didn't take long for those friends to become like family. We grew up here, and Jean and Charles were a part of life. We spent many hours at their house, and they spent many hours at ours. Their kids babysat us when we were young. Jean kept Leyden during the day for the first year of her life. My parents traveled to Virginia with Jean and Charles to see Jean's family a few times. Charles loved Cheaha State Park, and every year on Labor Day weekend, his family camps out there. In tents. And they cook over open fire. When we were young, Jean and Charles invited us to join them for one of these infamous camping trips. And our lives were forever changed.

I have many wonderful memories of Cheaha - whole wads of us kids playing around the campsite. There are awesome trails at Cheaha, and a nice lake with paddle boats and a diving platform. Marshmallows never tested better than the ones roasted on an open fire at Cheaha. We only went a few times when I was a child. I don't know why we didn't go anymore, we just didn't. And I really didn't think about it until last year, when Leyden was 9 and full of life. For some reason, I told Jean I wanted to go to Cheaha and take Leyden.

I bought a small tent, and a queen size air mattress that fills up the entire tent. (No kidding.) I also bought a ceiling fan for my tent. Don't laugh - it clips to the top of the tent and has foam blades and a light in the middle. And it works. I wouldn't take anything for my ceiling fan. Mom and Dad were supposed to buy their own tent and air mattress, but somewhere along the way, another of Dad's friends, Charlie, decided that he and Dad would go to a football game that weekend, so he would join us later. (Priorities in the South = 1. Football, 2. Football, 3. Football... you get the idea.) So, Mom and I decided that she could just share the queen size mattress with me and Leyden and save them some trouble. It worked out great, and I have to say that although I wouldn't call Mom an outdoorsman, she is definitely a great sport. She slept in that tent and traipsed around that campground like nobody's business. (And did I mention that when we went to Orlando in May, we got her to ride Test Track at Epcot? Mom is a trooper.)

Leyden enjoyed the campground way of life, the walks around the park, swimming in the lake and the ice cold pool, and blazing a trail through the woods. She loved the campfire and the food and the fellowship of friends by the fire. She loved riding in the back of the pickup to cut firewood. She loved eating boiled peanuts for no reason at all. Leyden, my friends, is as good an outdoorsman as the next girl.

No one knew that Labor Day 2006 would be the last camping trip for Charles. Labor Day 2007 is going to be bittersweet, as one of Charles' daughters put it. And she's right. Charles LOVED Cheaha; it was his place. He was the reason the whole family started going there in the first place. After all the tents were up and the "kitchen tent" was set, he piddled with the extension cords, put up clamp lights and moved them all around, poked at the fire. Last year, he even cut firewood. With a chainsaw. While I sat in the back of the pickup thinking he would cut off an appendage. When we left the funeral, Leyden said, "Mom, who's gonna eat boiled peanuts with me at Cheaha?" I'll eat boiled peanuts with her, but it won't be the same. Papa Charlie just had a way about him. As Leyden pointed out to me, Charles was the first one up every morning. And he loved every minute he got to enjoy Cheaha. We're going to miss his smile and his enthusiasm, and his piddlin'.

Yes, 2007 will be bittersweet... when the sun rises each morning at Cheaha, I'll remember Papa Charlie and think of what the view must be like from heaven.