It seems that most folks up there have a nickname and they wear those nicknames like a badge of honor. A nickname seems to say, you're special, special to someone because they chose to give you a name that endears you to them.
Several years ago, a small group of us were having breakfast at the local restaurant hangout. For some reason I was there without Joel that morning and I sat down to join the group. When it came time to pay, Eb offered to buy my breakfast. Cousin Steve jumped right on that opportunity and said that Eb was my Sugar Daddy because he was buying breakfast for me. It was then explained to me that everyone had to have a nickname at the river, and now Eb's was Sugar Daddy. And that made me Sugar Babe! Well, the names stuck.
From that day forward, every time I saw Eb I called out to him, "Hey, Sugar Daddy!" and he would grin and retort with, "Hello, Sugar Babe!" And then we'd hug and laugh, like it was the first time we had ever done that. Softie would just laugh and hug me, too. I have to say that I have never met a sweeter man. He never had an unkind word to say about anyone and generously shared his vast supply of tools with us during our many renovation projects.
One day I told Eb about some shacks I saw falling into the river when Steve and I were out on the boat. There was one particular shack that had an original 1950's slamming screen door and I wondered out loud if it would be possible to snag that door for the renovation of our back porch. Much to my amazement, the next time we went up to the river, Eb produced the very same screen door........in all it's dirty state. It had such a great patina which can only come from years of being bleached by the sun. One side was still green because it was facing away from the sun, while the other side had faded out to a great tealy-green.
It turned out that Eb took a ride down the road and found out who the caretaker was for those shacks and somehow convinced someone to remove the screen door and he hauled it back to the park for me! I was so touched that he went out of his way to retrieve a dirty old door that no one else would ever look at.....but he knew I loved all things with a history and that door brought back memories of my summers as a kid. Wasn't that just the most thoughtful gift? For once I was speechless when he presented the door to me. Here it is on our newly finished screen porch.
And so it was with great sorrow that I learned 4 days ago that Eb was terminally ill and under the care of Hospice. We had no idea that he was so sick, he never once said a thing to anyone. He just rode around the park in his golf cart with that ready smile. And tonight I got the call that he went home to be with the Lord. Heaven is most certainly a sweeter place with the addition of this lovely man and he will be sorely missed here on earth.
Sugar Babe
