a mom and a dad is home

they need no footings or rafters, no zip code or address--a mom and dad is just home to their children. they don't know it when they are little. they don't know it when they are big. they only know it...when they are gone. there is a strange and awful orphaning when you have no parents. until they are gone, they are your home, your roots and your residence. in the end, they don't have to do anything...they just have to be. be a voice on the phone, be the recipient of your simple gifts at holidays, be your parents when you speak of them to others. then, when they aren't anymore...you can't go home. it is sad. there is no replacement. no others will do...for they have been doing it all your life. no one else can. no one else knows how. you just go on...and you know now why heaven is your final...home.