I celebrate Donnie Sue first and foremost, my sweet Momma—the woman to whom all others are compared. I appreciate the strength and sacrifice she showed and made to nurture our little three family of Bullards into one of the most precious and enduring loves I’ll ever know.
I honor my Aunt Vera—her trembling hands with knotty knuckles that wrote $2 checks to me for Christmas in a hand more glyph than script; her piano-key smile full of charmingly crooked teeth, showing me how the beauty of a thing oft lies in its imperfection; for the summers I spent at her house playing Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs stored in the kitchen cupboard, for the hours of lessons in card sharping and fair play.
I offer tribute to Grandmother Marlene McCoy, with her pillowy expanse of huggable/cryable bosom and Merle Norman-scented cheek for planting kiddie kisses; for imparting the value of hard work in eternal, mercilessly humid Alabama summers in a corn field or vegetable patch; for her countenance that showed every emotion—one her daughter, my mother shares—so that when I was in the wrong, I could feel her forgiveness but still see the displeasure at the trespass.
And I pay homage to Granny Bullard, Mettie Adelia, who lived every day of her 101 years with a sassy word on her tongue, a toughness that helped her survive a Copperhead bite in her youth, and what she alluded to being an unladylike affinity for the taste of Jack Daniels (purely medicinal, of course). I learned over a century of life through her recollections and view from her window seat atop the river hill just up from Swann Covered Bridge. Very little escaped her notice, and I benefited from the wisdom cultivated in her vigilance.
I cry—often and sometimes uglily. I hug hard and well, and for as long as necessary. I know the value of a smile and a kind word or action. These lessons are often taught—and best learned—by example. I’m grateful for the women in my life that have taken the time and made the effort to ensure their spirits were part of my nature, not just for while I’m “on my best behavior.” And today, as hopefully every day, I am thankful they, and many other outstanding women, stand by and around me to send a man in the world who knows the value of their ferocious love and profound tenderness.