'LET'S PLAY, DADDY.'..

LET'S PLAY, DADDY...
BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES/ aka GRANNY GEE
He looked down below to where his body lay

'Daddy, get up'... he heard the little boy say...

'Are you playing, Daddy, why do you lay on the sand'?

The little boy stooped down to shake his shoulder with his little hand...

'Won't you get up, Daddy, come play with me'?

'Let's play, Daddy, let's run by the sea'...

The little boy began crying

his Daddy wouldn't wake up, though in his mind he was trying...

I'm looking down at you, my precious son

protecting you until the angels nearby come to protect you my little one...

I made it here in time to keep my promise to you

somehow, I must have 'known' I had to go away, instead of taking one trip... I'm taking 'two'....

The group of angels, a family who watched nearby

Came running with a cry...

We have to watch over this little boy

His daddy's collapsed here on the sand... just before he was running with the little boy with such ... joy.

One of the angels began talking gently to the child

Little one, your mommy will be here in a little while

The man angel picked up the cell phone that had fallen to the ground

He pressed the button to listen for a sound

The mother answered the phone, seeing on the caller ID

It was her son calling so soon again, she was smiling you see...

She was so happy that her son, and his family had made it safely .. this was Memorial Day holiday weekend

She was looking forward to seeing the photos on her computer that her son would soon send.....

She was smiling as she picked 'that phone' up to speak to her son

The smile fell to the floor, shattering into a million pieces as she softly said 'Skip, help me, help me someone'....

'Ma 'am, I have a collapsed man here on the beach, he's not breathing', the man said in her ear

'Why do you have my son's phone'? She said to him... because she didn't want to hear....

'He's not breathing', the man said again. He's laying here on the sand

She stood in pure shock as Skip took the phone from her hand

Darkness... instantly the mother was thrown into the darkest of dark, went with a smile...

As it fell to the floor around her, she was thrown into a journey of her own... she may or may not.. come back after a while.....

Her mind was like a trapped bird, frantically beating against the walls of her head...

Oh my God, did that man just say my son is.... dead!?

Bits and pieces here and there, thoughts... memories flitted through her mind... she was gone

Into the darkness, into a scary world where she had to walk all alone....

She went dark... she was darkness... she lived in darkness for quite some time... until one day

'Gloria, Baby Girl, come back... the Pups and I need you', she heard Skip say...

She began climbing, crawling toward the light his voice made

The pain was unlike any she ever experienced as she kept thinking of the sand... where her dying son... laid..

She fought hard to see the light

It took so long... many days and many months... when she did... it was a welcomed sight

She opened her eyes, they felt as if she'd lived in a cave

It was hard to keep them open, hard to know how to behave

Granny Gee went away, didn't know if she would ever come back, you see

She finally did with Skip and her Pups leading her out of the dark path... the one she went down when learning her son died... lying on the sand ..by the sea

By the sea, where he hurried to play with a little boy

who was his son.... they played like it was their last time with such joy...

'Daddy, won't you get up and play with me'? little Taban said that day...

He didn't know... that his daddy had went away

Taban will grow up with the memory that his daddy loved him

That if he'd had a choice, he'd still be with them...

Taban will know his daddy hurried to get to the beach to play, run

With his little son before he had to 'go again'... he got there in time to have fun

To squeal with joy as he shared his last moments, he got there just in time to play

For the first and last time with Taban at the beach... on that day.

Tommy died with 2 blockages in his heart on May 29, 2010 on Saturday evening at Myrtle Beach, on the sand...

Taban tried to wake him up, shaking his shoulder with his little hand...

'Daddy, won't you get up and come play'?

Never knowing his young life was changed forever... that day....