A very well deserved thank you

This, if you didn't know is Darrell, affectionately known as "Pops". Darrell is my mother's husband. I know that sounds like an odd misnomer, but there is a reason I call him that. Darrell is a great guy. He loves my mother and treats her with respect. He is the most wonderful grandfather you could ask for (well, Emma is still holding some reservations about him) to my kids. But, and this is a very large but (hee hee), I'm just too....old...to have a dad. My sister thinks of him as a father, and honestly, in some ways, I do as well. But the first two fathers I had barely qualified for that name and so I kind of just shut off the idea of having a father. I know, it sounds like I'm digressing here, but stay with me, I have a point.

Anyhoo, Darrell made me an offer the other day that made my mouth fall open, literally. He offered to get me cable and pay for it for a year. I know that some of you are thinking, "That's not that big a deal". Let me explain: I haven't had cable for two years. At first it was cut off because it was too expensive with me being in school. After I graduated, I never got it turned back on because I couldn't afford it by myself (and don't worry about my kids...they have enough spongebob, dora and diego movies, among others, that I should start renting them out to the neighborhood kids). Big game on? I would try to squeeze it into my schedule to go to my sister's or my mom's house. But I never really missed having cable. In fact, it almost became a point of pride to say that I didn't watch TV.

Then Darrell made his offer. He listed his reasons for doing so, none of which I'm going to go into here. But they were generous and very touching reasons, I assure you. And much like a tee totaler who's fallen off the wagon, I suddenly relished the thought of catching Sportscenter and watching the late night news. That's when the real impact of what I had been given hit me. I was going to get a sense of normalcy back into my life. I was going to be able to do something as mundane as turn on the TV.

And it's all thanks to Darrell. I prolly still won't call him "dad" (I'm not going to prostitute my feelings that much). But I certainly feel like I have a dad now, for the first time in my life in a very, very long time. And it's not because he was generous with his money. It's because he wanted me to feel like I wasn't failing in life because I couldn't even afford to have something as simple as cable TV. And for that, I give him the utmost thanks on the biggest stage I have in my possession.