Day Thirty

“Five forty-three!”

We yell it, we text it, we see the combination of numbers in real life like on a street sign or house number, and we loudly share with each other. It’s a special number to us.

543 was Roger’s badge number at Half Moon Volunteer Fire Department before he passed. They’ve since retired the number, so it is eternally his, and we love the good luck charm.

543 will join us each evening, and some mornings it tiptoes into the room before the sun rises over the Carolina pines. It offers us a sense of peace like he’s checking up on us, reminds us while we’re still looking into the future and creating goals. I’ve also used the number in home purchases, so it’s on official legal records for people to wonder about.

This is Day 30 of my writing. I finished something. I’m not done though, but I still need personal accountability, so I am going to continue this writing journey, and do my best to at least do 543 consecutive days of posts. They may be poems, lists, notes, full posts about my day or thoughts, or whatever I wish to talk about. Some will be about Roger, others not. I pay for the blog page, so I should use all of it.

Daily writing is freeing my mind, offering me practice, but more than anything, it is keeping Roger’s memory a little more alive. When I remember a conversation I had with him and write it in my notes or tap it on the keys, I can hear him talk, and I hope some of you can, too, especially the boys. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop thinking about talks with him or general memories, so why not release them?

I can hear my modest husband now, “Teresa Mae, do you really need to write about me every day?”

Yep, I do, at least some days.

I’m not done talking yet.