Soul Food from the Heart
My sixtyfourth birthday was this past weekend. It was a watershed moment for me, a date I had been thinking about for a long time. When I was 12 years old my father Harold B. Bosworth died of heart failure just prior to his sixty fourth birthday. He died suddenly a long way from home.
I am writing about it because the experience from a child's eyes laid a footing for the foundation of my life. My stand out memories from this seminal event flow in vivid recollection.
- Standing on Miami Shores Community Center's practice field with my pee-wee football team watching the train pass by that was carrying my mom and dad to New York for a business conference.
-Answering the upstairs phone in my brother Marty's room simultaneously with my Aunt Betty(see "Majestic Messengers" post on this blog) and hearing dad's boss Bill Ruben say, "Betty things are not so good up here, Harold passed away this morning." I heard the phone drop and Aunt Betty wail.
-Riding in the back seat of the funeral procession limo and looking out the window seeing my friends with their families.
- Our Trinity Episcopal Church filled like I have never seen it before just beyond the parking lot of the Jordan Marsh that my Dad ran.
I am not sure for how long it has been important for me to reach 64, probably since I got sober and stopped trying to kill myself. Maybe it came from looking back on some of my youthful behavior and realizing what great odds I had beaten just to become a mature adult.
I was angry at my father for along time. I blamed him for conceiving me at such an age that it would deprive me of his influence and council in later years. I missed being able to take advantage of his great wisdom and business sense.
By outliving my father I broke a cycle as his father had also died when Harold was a young man. By braking this cycle I have started a new one where I can share my wisdom with my wonderful daughters. I can be an example to them as they grow and God willing for my grandchildren some day.
It was not just the age milestone that made this birthday special it was all the people in my life now and all the people God has placed as guides along the way. We all have these guides some whose names we know and some we know not yet.
One who is a guide to many inside of our Smyrna First UMC and outside in the community is David.
And his banana bread is out of this world.
Amen Brother
Bradford Bosworth
May 2016
- Standing on Miami Shores Community Center's practice field with my pee-wee football team watching the train pass by that was carrying my mom and dad to New York for a business conference.
-Answering the upstairs phone in my brother Marty's room simultaneously with my Aunt Betty(see "Majestic Messengers" post on this blog) and hearing dad's boss Bill Ruben say, "Betty things are not so good up here, Harold passed away this morning." I heard the phone drop and Aunt Betty wail.
-Riding in the back seat of the funeral procession limo and looking out the window seeing my friends with their families.
- Our Trinity Episcopal Church filled like I have never seen it before just beyond the parking lot of the Jordan Marsh that my Dad ran.
I am not sure for how long it has been important for me to reach 64, probably since I got sober and stopped trying to kill myself. Maybe it came from looking back on some of my youthful behavior and realizing what great odds I had beaten just to become a mature adult.
I was angry at my father for along time. I blamed him for conceiving me at such an age that it would deprive me of his influence and council in later years. I missed being able to take advantage of his great wisdom and business sense.
By outliving my father I broke a cycle as his father had also died when Harold was a young man. By braking this cycle I have started a new one where I can share my wisdom with my wonderful daughters. I can be an example to them as they grow and God willing for my grandchildren some day.
One who is a guide to many inside of our Smyrna First UMC and outside in the community is David.
And his banana bread is out of this world.
Amen Brother
Bradford Bosworth
May 2016
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