a birthday ovation for the woman I adore...
BORN IN A CITY AT THE RIM OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN RANGE IN COLORADO...
SHE HAS LIVED THE MAJORITY OF HER ADULT LIFE ON THE LONG SKINNY Island of Manhattan and with any luck at all, she says that she hopes she dies there. She seems to have an irrational love for the place, and when I hear her say that, I often think of William Faulkner's remark about his native Mississippi, and how he loved it "in spite of, not because." Down through the years, she has faced a city of daily exasperation, occasional alarm, hourly tests of will and even courage, and huge bits of pure beauty. For her, it has been a place infused with a mixture of memory, myth, lore, and a history bound together in an extraordinary, instinctive way. That mysterious mixture is why so much of this portrait of her is personal to me. Past and present are merged together in my memory of her. But something else is in the mix, too. Something magical. And certain moments are always present tense. She is my daughter. She is now and has always been amazingly miraculous and magical to me.
In one of my earliest memories, she is 3 years old cuddled between my knees on an old black sofa in a Colorado parsonage, back in the days when I was a Lutheran Minister; and I am also with her in memory on the eve of Christmas in the falling snow on the parsonage front porch, as we both await the arrival of Santa Claus. In the safe darkness of night I'd never looked upon such an innocent and expectant face. She takes my hand and smiles up at me, knowing that if I said that Santa would come, he most definitely would arrive soon; and he did, immediately after I had tucked her into bed. The following morning, she is laughing and exuberant, clearly made happy that I kept my promise to her, and that Santa had arrived with special gifts just for her. And as she grew older, nothing seemed to dismay her.
Why?
Because.
Above all, because her journey as a young girl to the woman who she would one day become began on the stage of a Houston grade school, where she welcomed the audience to the show by saying: "Welcome, welcome, welcome to our show..." The acting bug had truly bitten her. She would go on to excel not only in her grades, but in swimming and volleyball; and, of course, with perfect timing, the art of acting; where she would win award after award. My daughter's world seemed to have no limits. She was a quick swimmer, determined volleyball player, excellent actress, good student; and in her world she learned the only way to get to know yourself was by walking various avenues of the talents you were born with. She was quick, determined, and always expanding her frontiers, showing me visions that would remain with me for the remainder of my life.
To my astonishment, I have now known her for 51 years.
In each and every one of those 18,615 days that have now come and gone since her birth, she has forever given me pleasure. Through a combination of her mother's genes and sheer luck on my part, I saw her life quickly soar the moment she moved from Houston to the City of New York after a stint at the University of Houston. Manhattan was the perfect symbol for the future she one day hoped to have: it was noisy, plural, brash, vulgar, always shifting, filled with rejection and disappointment and slightly dangerous.
I was fortunate enough to join her in the city of Manhattan shortly thereafter.
And new memories were born.
She would soon be playing Detective Agnes Farley on Law & Order Criminal Intent and Doctor Elaine Schuller on As The World Turns, with guest spots on Sopranos, All My Children, and One Life To Live, along with voice overs for MTV and Lifetime and HBO, to name only a few. She also became the voice for Bravo and Noggin and Mack Jr. She now is attempting to have a play she has written called Texas Reckoning, produced.
And on one magic evening that she probably does not even recall, the two of us happened to be walking hand-in-hand in the rain down 2nd Avenue heading home, when she suddenly came to a halt. As she pointed to the spires aimed at the sky, all gilded by glistening rain beneath the darkened clouds above as a Shooting Star sped by just beyond the horizon giving a brief moment of light to the deepening night, and she said, It's all so miraculous. I asked, What is? in a stupefied way. She smiled: This city. All of it, Dad...
...And so was she.
Her name is Traci Lynne Godfrey.
She now has a son named Keeko.
And he is showing her what she has forever meant to me.
Although she has now resided in New Jersey for a short period of time: It is my hope, that on some fine future exploration uptown on an evening near the end of the day, with the hint of rain in the air as the sun heads for New Jersey and the sky is turning deep lavender, that my daughter and my grandson will be holding hands, looking up at the magic of the spires and the bridges and the endless roll of rooftops moving north and west and east and spot a Shooting Star soaring high in the clouds above, heading downtown, leading the both of them back home...
...penned in honor of a life well-lived from
a father who adores her and honors her
for being who it is that she has become...
And asking her to forever remember the
Hemingway quote: "The world breaks
everyone and afterward many are
strong at the broken places..." which is
something you have shown me all of
your life. You are a woman who has
come through your struggles, and have
always been stronger and more
resilient because of it...and that, my
daughter, is a lesson you have taught
me...and I thank God each and every day
you for being you and putting up with
me along the way...
BORN IN A CITY AT THE RIM OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN RANGE IN COLORADO...
SHE HAS LIVED THE MAJORITY OF HER ADULT LIFE ON THE LONG SKINNY Island of Manhattan and with any luck at all, she says that she hopes she dies there. She seems to have an irrational love for the place, and when I hear her say that, I often think of William Faulkner's remark about his native Mississippi, and how he loved it "in spite of, not because." Down through the years, she has faced a city of daily exasperation, occasional alarm, hourly tests of will and even courage, and huge bits of pure beauty. For her, it has been a place infused with a mixture of memory, myth, lore, and a history bound together in an extraordinary, instinctive way. That mysterious mixture is why so much of this portrait of her is personal to me. Past and present are merged together in my memory of her. But something else is in the mix, too. Something magical. And certain moments are always present tense. She is my daughter. She is now and has always been amazingly miraculous and magical to me.
In one of my earliest memories, she is 3 years old cuddled between my knees on an old black sofa in a Colorado parsonage, back in the days when I was a Lutheran Minister; and I am also with her in memory on the eve of Christmas in the falling snow on the parsonage front porch, as we both await the arrival of Santa Claus. In the safe darkness of night I'd never looked upon such an innocent and expectant face. She takes my hand and smiles up at me, knowing that if I said that Santa would come, he most definitely would arrive soon; and he did, immediately after I had tucked her into bed. The following morning, she is laughing and exuberant, clearly made happy that I kept my promise to her, and that Santa had arrived with special gifts just for her. And as she grew older, nothing seemed to dismay her.
Why?
Because.
Above all, because her journey as a young girl to the woman who she would one day become began on the stage of a Houston grade school, where she welcomed the audience to the show by saying: "Welcome, welcome, welcome to our show..." The acting bug had truly bitten her. She would go on to excel not only in her grades, but in swimming and volleyball; and, of course, with perfect timing, the art of acting; where she would win award after award. My daughter's world seemed to have no limits. She was a quick swimmer, determined volleyball player, excellent actress, good student; and in her world she learned the only way to get to know yourself was by walking various avenues of the talents you were born with. She was quick, determined, and always expanding her frontiers, showing me visions that would remain with me for the remainder of my life.
To my astonishment, I have now known her for 51 years.
In each and every one of those 18,615 days that have now come and gone since her birth, she has forever given me pleasure. Through a combination of her mother's genes and sheer luck on my part, I saw her life quickly soar the moment she moved from Houston to the City of New York after a stint at the University of Houston. Manhattan was the perfect symbol for the future she one day hoped to have: it was noisy, plural, brash, vulgar, always shifting, filled with rejection and disappointment and slightly dangerous.
I was fortunate enough to join her in the city of Manhattan shortly thereafter.
And new memories were born.
She would soon be playing Detective Agnes Farley on Law & Order Criminal Intent and Doctor Elaine Schuller on As The World Turns, with guest spots on Sopranos, All My Children, and One Life To Live, along with voice overs for MTV and Lifetime and HBO, to name only a few. She also became the voice for Bravo and Noggin and Mack Jr. She now is attempting to have a play she has written called Texas Reckoning, produced.
And on one magic evening that she probably does not even recall, the two of us happened to be walking hand-in-hand in the rain down 2nd Avenue heading home, when she suddenly came to a halt. As she pointed to the spires aimed at the sky, all gilded by glistening rain beneath the darkened clouds above as a Shooting Star sped by just beyond the horizon giving a brief moment of light to the deepening night, and she said, It's all so miraculous. I asked, What is? in a stupefied way. She smiled: This city. All of it, Dad...
...And so was she.
Her name is Traci Lynne Godfrey.
She now has a son named Keeko.
And he is showing her what she has forever meant to me.
Although she has now resided in New Jersey for a short period of time: It is my hope, that on some fine future exploration uptown on an evening near the end of the day, with the hint of rain in the air as the sun heads for New Jersey and the sky is turning deep lavender, that my daughter and my grandson will be holding hands, looking up at the magic of the spires and the bridges and the endless roll of rooftops moving north and west and east and spot a Shooting Star soaring high in the clouds above, heading downtown, leading the both of them back home...
...penned in honor of a life well-lived from
a father who adores her and honors her
for being who it is that she has become...
And asking her to forever remember the
Hemingway quote: "The world breaks
everyone and afterward many are
strong at the broken places..." which is
something you have shown me all of
your life. You are a woman who has
come through your struggles, and have
always been stronger and more
resilient because of it...and that, my
daughter, is a lesson you have taught
me...and I thank God each and every day
you for being you and putting up with
me along the way...
No comments:
Post a Comment