I Have The Best Kids In The World

Friday November 6, 1992

We're up at 7:45. My tenant will be here at 10 a.m. to pay the rent and I'm going to lunch with Karen today. Karen picks me up at 11:40 and we go to the new Hamburger Hamlet where we have Chinese Chicken Salad and stay 3 hours. We have a really good visit and share our life stories. She had a girl that ran away constantly from age 14 and a son who got 68 speeding tickets on his motorcycle and was jailed more than once. Her husband left her for a younger woman when the children were 11 and 12. Sounded like her life was a nightmare. It really made me appreciate my life and especially my children. I think I have THE BEST KIDS IN THE WORLD. I love them so very much. And I've had a wonderful life.

I sailed through this day feeling pretty good but pooped out about 6 p.m.

Every generation has had its issues, of course, but it seems like drugs, alcohol, and violence are becoming more and more common with each generation. I feel completely blessed that my boys have avoided these kinds of problems. Certainly having both parents in the home helps. My parents divorced when my brother Gary (pictured above on the far left) was 16 and I was 19. I don't think they were particularly well-suited for each other, but they stayed together for the sake of the kids until we were close to adulthood. Even still I felt abandoned by my father when he moved out. For this woman Karen to have her husband leave her when her children were 11 and 12 must have been devastating, and probably was very hard on the children. They sure did act out inappropriately. Mom may have thought she had the best kids in the world, but Gary and I know we had the best mother in the world. How I miss her! I'm glad she believed she had a wonderful life, even though it was cut short.