(A Sequel to The Responsibility and Rewards of Parenting)

At the beginning of the school year, we bought each of our four sons a couple of wash and wear dress pants (no jeans could be worn to school at that time) and maybe three new cotton (to be starched and ironed) shirts, new leather shoes (tennis shoes could only be worn in the gymnasium), and a fall jacket. As you know from the article written for the second edition of our Webzine, we lived on a farm, rented on halves from my husband's parents......and found it very difficult to make ends meet.

About the third day of school, my second son came home from school with the pocket nearly torn completely off of his new shirt. It happened on the playground, he said, defending himself against my reprimand. I felt it would impress him more if he had to go to the barn and show his father, so with tears in his eyes, he slowly went out the back door. As in most families, the boys feared a lecture from "Dad" more than they did from "Mom."

When Dick came back to the house, I was surprised to see a large grin on his face. I said, "What did your Dad say?" and he replied, "Dad said tell your Mother to go buy you another shirt." I was not only surprised but actually felt proud of the way my husband handled this situation.

Dick's father has now passed on, but Dick will never forget this story. This certainly made me realize that the compassion and love that my husband showed to his son, was far more valuable than the cost of another shirt. I learned a lesson that day, too!