Larger than life

When I made that

phone call

to Doug a couple of weeks ago

to tell him I had had an

incident

with the car,

our nicest, newest, only-one-working-right car,

it reminded me all too well

of that time when I was 16

and had to call my dad

to tell him about that fender-bender

in our family's new mini-van.

He had reacted kindly to my tearful news,

making me feel better

instead of worse.

And that day, in my eyes,

my dad was larger than life.

So when I called Doug

to tell him what had happened the other day,

that I had made a mistake

that tore the front bumper off the car,

I was tearful as well.

And his reaction, much like my dad's,

was kind and understanding.

Yesterday he spent a couple of hours

fixing my mistake.

I watched him and thought

what a man I had married.

He's so handy

and can fix just about anything.

Like my dad,

I thought he was larger than life.

But not just because he's

good at that manly stuff.

Because he was compassionate and kind.

Because he knew I felt bad

and that it could be fixed.

Because he knew that

people mean more than things.

Boy, am I lucky, to have a man like that.