We came home after the Cottonwood Haunted House to a water leak under the kitchen sink.
I can’t believe how Elliot responded. It was so… special. He saw I was distraught. He said, “hug, daddy, hug” several times. We hugged over and over and he said things like, “it is ok” and “we have a beautiful house” and “don’t worry”.
When I got a bunch of towels to dry the water, he said “let me help” and took the towels from me and wiped up the water as best he could.
Then he asked me for paper on which to draw. On the kitchen table, he drew several pictures for me, something he’s never done before. One was a rainbow ice cream that I pretended to eat. Another was a picture of me that said “FAVORITE DADDY” (he asked me how to spell it), and two more were of cats — he knows I like cats. One he named one “Sammy”, writing it on the paper, asking me how to spell it. And finally he asked me to draw a flower pot; then he drew a flower with several colors in the pot for me.
All of this because of the water leak.
I thanked him profusely. I told him that he’s right, the water leak doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are together, right now.
He knows what is important and showed me when he saw me getting upset. It changed everything and brought us even closer together – something I didn’t think possible.
I wish I could convey how special it was. Just writing a description of what happened doesn’t capture it. I’m a good technical writer but not so good and conveying emotion and feeling in writing.
