Before I left for Wildrose Cottage and my last book event of the summer, Mandy came to visit. We spent three glorious days on the beach on Long Boat Key, just Mandy, Papa, and me. It was a special time; a time I know will never come again, not in the same way. There may be other visits, other beaches, and other memories, but none quite like this one. I feel sad when I think of it, but I know this is the way of life, the way it must be.
Mandy is sweet sixteen, with taffy hair and brown eyes. Her voice is sweet, and her way is kind. She is at that magical age when girlhood is melting away like footprints left in the sand, disappearing with another wave. She is a woman-child, waiting…watching, looking into the golden sunset, wondering what life has in store for her.
God has a plan for her life and I’m thankful for a little part in that plan. I want to be there if she ever needs me. I was there when she drew her first quavering breath. I will never forget that night as long as I live. It was a wintry night, cold and snowing when she came into the world.
I remember too the look on Katherine’s face when first she held the baby in arms and peered into the tiny face. It was a look of love so profound that no artist could ever reproduce it. There was that instant connection, a bonding that in some unfathomable way, will last a lifetime and beyond, no matter what comes. I have felt that awesome, indescribable bond when my own babies were born. True, they may leave us in a physical sense, but that attachment which binds us together at birth, can never be broken.
The years come and go and we see God’s hand weaving the tapestry of our lives. One golden thread in our tapestry is Mandy, and we treasure the moments, the days she stopped by Tanglewood to visit us in her journeyto womanhood. We are blessed.
