Kangaroos make me cry

Update: Many of you have emailed and asked how David is doing. He is still in the hospital. Some things are improving but he is still having some problems. I know that they can still use our prayers.


A long, long time ago when Mollie was just a little thing she could never pass a gum ball machine/toy machine. When she was with her grandparents she never had to. All she had to do was say ‘Please Granddaddy’ and she had a quarter in her hand. Once when she and my dad were out alone the quarter bought her a little kangaroo no more that ¾ of an inch high. She played with it that afternoon but before she left their house Granddaddy had a request.

He told her “Mollie, I sometimes have trouble finding my car in parking lots these days.” He was at the very beginning of his fight with Parkinson Disease and dementia but we could already see some changes – having to look for his car was one of them. So he said to Mollie “If you would loan me your kangaroo I’ll stick him on my dash and then I’ll know it’s my car.”

Mollie doted on Granddaddy as much as he doted on her so she thought that was a fine idea and together they glue the little thing to the dash. Over the next few months he would tell Mollie that the kangaroo was very helpful in finding his car and he added “Sometimes he helps me find my way home.” Within a few years, however, dad had to give up driving. But when we took him out he would still find the car by looking for the kangaroo.

Four years ago when Mollie was 12 Dad passed away. My niece bought his car. After the deal was made Mollie said, “I want the kangaroo back. I loaned that to Granddaddy but it’s mine.” No one, including me, paid much attention to her but she kept persisting. I finally told my sister, “When you get ready to trade that car, get that kangaroo out. Mollie insists it’s hers.”

In the fall of 2007 my niece got a new car. She told Mollie that she got the kangaroo for her but she couldn’t find at the moment. She was sure it and that it would turn up eventually. Knowing that basically meant it was gone for good Mollie was upset, but what are you going to do? As it turned out her cousin was just messing with her and that Christmas Mollie receiver the little toy back. She was thrilled but I figured that was the last time it would ever be seen. Mollie inherited all her house keeping skills from me! I figured once that ¾ inch, little toy disappeared into the garbage dump she calls a room that was it! Gone forever!!

I was wrong. It’s had been 14 months since she had it back in her hands but it hadn’t vanished into her room. I saw it again the other day. Mollie and I were headed to town for some shopping and she wanted to drive. As I slide into her car something caught my eye. There sat the little kangaroo, bleached completely white by the sun, glued to the dash of her car. She saw me looking at it and grinned, “Sometimes,” she said “he helps me find my way home.”

Yep, kangaroos make me cry.