Living in the Glow of Love

"Because he's fighting brain cancer"

• Ashley Nobles
  

        Living in the Glow of Love

We drove down a long dirt road covered in water puddles before we came to a house located in the shadow of the biggest dog I've ever seen. I'm telling you that when a dog stands on all four legs and can almost look me in the eye I get a little nervous. So when the car stopped and it was time to get out I opened the door very slowly just to see if it was safe to walk up to the house to visit a friend.

As soon as I cracked the door open a tail as big as a baseball bat began to sway back and forth, back and forth. I knew then that it was safe to go outside. I also knew that if I didn't want a broken leg, I'd have to stay away from that now rapidly moving tail!

As my friends and I began to walk up the driveway we were joined by a young woman and man carrying a large, brown cardboard box. The box didn't seem too heavy but maneuvering up some stairs and around the swinging baseball bat of a tail was a little complicated. Still, soon we were, all five of us, greeted at the front door with wide open arms.

It was an impromptu meeting that I hadn't anticipated. Three of us were there to visit our friend John. Sure, we had seen him briefly not more than three days before, but that brief reunion hadn't given any of us much satisfaction since we couldn't sit and talk.

Now we were all sitting and talking. Well, all but the other two.

I sat in a nearby corner and watched the tall, lean couple as they intently placed the box they'd been carrying on an island in the kitchen. They carefully opened the box and began to remove its contents. I was curious.

At first just one shirt was pulled from the box. I could see it had some writing and a picture on it, but I couldn't see what it said. Then an entire bindle of shirts was extracted leaving the man's arms fully loaded and heavily laden. The woman, Ashley, walked over to our little group carrying the first, single shirt with a beaming smile.

Now I could read it.

"I'm running for my Dad." The front of the white t-shirt read.

Then she turned the shirt so we could all see the back for the first time; and there, in a full color photograph, her father John was revealed. It was a picture of the old John, the father and friend we were there to visit. It also had a caption below the picture.

It said, "Because he's fighting brain cancer."

She reached out and showed it to her father, the current John, the one we were showing our love to; the one that no longer looked like the picture on the shirt. But still the same person we love and admire.

My eyes became moist as I drank in the scene. I remembered the old saying, "Wearing your emotions on your sleeve." This was different. This was a declaration of an undying love, an unconditional love. This was an example of a pure love I'll be treasuring for a lifetime.

Our hearts were warmed, our friendships were renewed and we walked back out to the car. I looked back at the house; the house that was in the shadow of the big dog when I arrived. As I looked through the window I saw something else now. There wasn't a shadow there anymore. There was a loving glow that set a blaze within my heart.