For every parent who’s said goodbye to their little pumpkin.
Ishpeming, MI – November 1, 2016 – I lit a candle last night in a small pumpkin; a happy little fellow. For over 20 years now, I’ve lit that same candle. Each year a different face lights up around it, but the candle remains. One of a few mementos saved from a Halloween long past.
Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love to watch the kids run excitedly from house to house; cowboys, ghosts, witches, little lambs in their mothers’ arms, astronauts, and aliens all fill the air with laughter as they screech, “Trick of Treat!”
Friends joke because I get excited when the first leaves of fall start appearing on summer days. They think I’m nuts because I think fall is the best time of year. I love the way dry leaves crunch under your feet and crisp, autumn breezes whip through the trees.
October means I get to put up my ever-growing collection of spooky decorations (I have more Halloween decorations than Christmas decorations). This year, I visited a small family farm in Nisula to pick out the perfect pumpkins – one for each of my kids.
Two big pumpkins wore scary, creepy faces for my two grown girls who also love Halloween, and one small pumpkin for my son – always a smile, always happy. His life was brief – he was here and then gone one Halloween night.
The first of November means it’s time to say goodbye again to Halloween, goodbye to the orange and black decorations, goodbye to little ghouls and goblins, and goodbye to sweet little pumpkins who never get to stay long enough.
In Memory of John Michael – 10/31/1992
