You know life is full of many paths, and everyone must travel them.
Some lead to the mountain top, others to the valley.
When one is born, baby steps take up the call to move. Where these legs and feet will go is then left to imagination. Falls, bumps and bruises are part of this march to the door; tears and smiles too.
Life’s journey has begun.
And the following years are numbered by birthdays; and last week the Dargan Boy had another.
My life was most happy growing up in the woods of Dargan with my grandparents, Reno and Gen. My youth was really something ‘magical’ with all sorts of mischief.
My cousin Pee Wee, who also lived with the grandparents, was a lot of company back in those days.
All the neighborhood kids gathered to play baseball, basketball, football and some got together for some night time card games, with chicken soup, cheese and crackers and homemade root beer.
When high school was over, those kids from the woods went in different directions.
At age 18, I enlisted in the Army and went to war in Vietnam. I was lucky to return home while over 58,000 soldiers died there.
In August 1968, I came home from Vietnam and married my childhood sweetheart and best friend, Sheila Lynn Knight.
In 1969, our daughter Amy was born at Fort Lee, Va., costing me a whopping $7.25.
Amy has been a fine daughter and now lives next door. She took me to one of my favorite plays, Les Misérables, at the Kennedy Center recently.
Valjean, a main character in this play, lived his life in the valley and climbed up the mountain, a noble journey.
I began a career in corrections at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Hagerstown on Christmas Eve 1969 working the 4-12 shift. Prison riots greeted me in 1970, ’71 and ’72. Overcrowded conditions and other negatives were part of a routine day.
I also began my college career of seven and one-half years in 1970, receiving the master of art’s degree in the human sciences.
In 1972, I knocked over a telephone poll near Taylors Landing Road on my way to work; spent six weeks in traction and thought for sure I had shaken hands with the Grim Reaper.
Somehow along the way, I became a Prison Warden for 16 years and had a 34-year career at the Big House. No boring days in this profession.
Throughout my life and ordeals, I always had the good support and presence of my best friend ,Sheila. She was a pillar of our family’s strength and successes, and we dealt with some difficult situations along the way.
We travelled, loved, smiled, cried, supported others and walked a path that was full of life.
When my grandmother Gen became sick in 1976 with cancer, Sheila, as a young wife, looked after her with pain shots, meals, showers and other duties while I worked and went to school.
As her mother Ethel became ill with dementia, Amy and Sheila took the lead while securing assistance to provide for her at home and supporting her until her death. Years later they also looked after her father Leon until his passing in 2005.
In 2005, I took off for Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, pulling trailers to help out FEMA and deliver temporary homes to many displaced citizens.
Throughout many birthdays, Sheila and Amy have always been supportive of my many adventures. No two people have created so much happiness to this ‘life of a Dargan Boy’ and rooted for me along this grand road.
On July 29th, 2023 at 11 p.m., my best friend left me for higher ground after several difficult years of dementia.
I kissed her goodbye.
Now, my fireplace mantel safekeeps Sheila’s ashes there, along with special pictures and cards.
And today, I placed some flowers on the mantel.
I loved her then, and I love her still……
Always have and always will.
