Time Marches On.

Hello all:
It's been a few weird weeks as I am sure you can all understand. Not only did my mother pass but sort of a Richards family monument was layed to rest as well. My fathers business "Don Richards Lincoln Mercury Jeep" finally met it's demise last week. I knew that last summer when the Lincoln store moved up to LaPoint and the building stood vacant that the end was near. In late November when they started sub dividing the lot DeEtte and I decided to go snap some pictures.

When I heard it was coming down last week I went and snapped so pictures of it's destruction in progress. It took years for my father to build his business into one of the finest of it's kind but only hours to put the final dagger in it's heart. How sad.I have to admit there was a certain amount of pride and love I felt every time I drove past. That was to me a garden of wonderful memories. A sanctuary of sorts. When I was sad and longed for the good old days I could always drive by and put a smile on my face. I remember my father teaching me how to drive there on Sundays at age 9. I also remember my father teaching me the value of not crashing into new Lincolns at about age 9 and a 1/2. I remember roasted turkey and bear skin rugs, I remember Pantera's, baja jeeps and restored Lincolns on the show room floor. I remember Christmas music on the intercom and seasonal pictures on the glass. For me there were allot of good times there. Let's just put one thing to rest though. And I will only say this once, I did NOT drive the jeep over the railing on the out door part of the show room!

Strange that it was knocked down the week after my Mom passed away. Maby it was her attempt at closure and the finality of it was a way for her to move on. I don't know. For me it is the close of a long chapter of my life. My only regret is that I don't have any pictures of the building when it was Don Richards. If any family members have pictures of when were were in business I would love a copy.

To quote David Lee Roth "Time moves on and that's the way it should be, here and gone it seems to move so quickly." And so it does, and so it does.

Iva Lu Richards 1928 - 2009

Well gang this is day I had hoped would never come. Unfortunately it is my sad duty to report the death of my beloved mother. She passed away at 12:48 P.M on Sunday January 4th 2009.
Since sunday I have had so many thoughts and emotions run through my head. The bottom line is that I had a very strange relationship with my mother. How could someone make me so mad who I loved so much? How could someone I thought could be so clueless be so inteligent. How could I want so dearly to be close to some one I tried so hard to push away? We had our issues there is not doubt but they always seemed to work out in the end. In all of the difficult times I shared in the relationship with my mother I want all of you to know this, my mother NEVER stopped telling me she loved me and she NEVER stopped being concerned with my well being. In all of that time when I was depressed, and not know what to do I could always call on her for a loving shoulder to cry on and a bit of good advice. She was a master of pointing out the obvious, which until this just this this moment, I could never figure out why she did that but now that I look back I think her message was this, the obvious is there for a reason, to keep life simple, the answer is right in front of you don't complicate things and let it pass you by.
I am so thankful to God above for allowing me to finally get over what ever it was that was haunting me and have a few months of the way it used to be with my Mom.
The death of a loved one is a very strange thing. We always say that we would do any thing for them but we are always so selfish when it's time for them to leave. We can't bare to let them go, but that is for us not for them. I have to be careful when I say this, but I really wanted my mom to go. She had expressed on several occasions how much she wanted to see her Husband again and especially see her parents and siblings again. As my family and I lay beside her bedside as she was taking her last few breaths she spoke her last words and they were this, "what do I do?". The answer is obvious my dear Mother, walk forward, don't ever look back and know that I will always love you.