I wasn’t really sure what I thought I was going to find, but for some reason part of me fell apart when I looked in the crib and saw the old and tattered elephant.  I gently picked him up and in perfect rhythm to my heart, the music inside it chimed, “…when skies are grey.”

It was as if the last 27 years of my life flashed before me and memories began to flood my mind.  There were summer days when we looked down the street and saw pops cruising in the red convertible on his way to pick us up from school to head to the beach.  I thought about the fishing trips and the times he wrote the things he was thankful for in a letter to each of us at Thanksgiving.  I remembered high school graduation and the moment when he read my name as I received my diploma.  Though I gave him “our” sign for I love you, I still wish I would have given him a big hug — right there, in front of everyone to see.

As a few of us stand on the edge of tomorrow, uncertain of what will come to be — I remember the rest of that song the elephant failed to chime a few days ago.

“You are my sunshine
my only sunshine.
You make me happy
when skies are grey.
You never know dear
how much I love you.
Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

I grabbed the stuffed toy as I stood frozen in a moment, hearing the song on repeat as my child voice sang along with pops all those times so many years ago.  Maybe it was an effort to hang onto the good times or maybe it was an effort to not lose hope.

Either way…

“Please don’t take my sunshine away.”