April 24, 2012

          Dear CCI Family,

      For those of you who knew Bret, I hope his wisdom might come into play for you and help you out when you are just about to lose it.  “It is what it is” might work in the circumstances that many of us are in in our lives right about now, huh?   Please know I pray for you as often as I can, and remember that Bret does, too, from Heaven, as well as his Savior, Jesus.  So, since it seems like you could use a laugh, here’s another Bret story for you to enjoy! 

         Many of you, who knew Bret, even a little, heard his voice often dripping with sarcasm and experienced his twisted sense of humor.  Much to the dismay of the queen mother, both our children “osmosised” these endearing qualities from the king father.  In fact, between the three of them, I had no chance.  I was pretty much forever mocked!

         One of the warped traditions Bret started with Jonathon and Deanna was at Easter.  From the time they were itty-bitty, he hid money in the Easter eggs.  It got to the point that they neither one even cared about the candy.  They just hawked for the money!    Even the neighbor kids in Stallion and all of their cousins and best friends got in on the act.  It probably started out with nickels, dimes, and quarters, but by the time he got the idea to add the “golden egg” (Which, I think Deanna got out of one of those stupid quarter machines, AND which became the ultimate prize.), it had a five dollar bill in it.  That year he wrapped the egg in some nasty foil leftover from a “few days old” dinner and stuffed in down deep in the outside trash can.  None of the kids ever found it before dark, and we had to stop the Easter egg hunt, and when they all finally had to throw in the towel, he made a very deliberate march over and took it out of the trash and waved it around at Jonathon and Deanna and the neighbor kids in triumph. 

The last Easter egg hunt that we had at our house on Arosa Road, involved our kids and their best friends.  The golden egg that year had a $100 bill in it.  After all those years, Deanna had finally figured her father out, and after about an hour of torture looking for it all around the property, she walked up to him and took it out right of his front pocket, while all the other kids climbed the roof, the trees, dug holes, etc.  Jonathon and his friend, David Schultz, even put their arms in a bucket of used motor oil that year, thinking Bret was that devious! 

Not only did Bret do the golden money egg, but he also hid the kids' Easter baskets every year, to where they had to nearly tear the house down, in order to find them, he hid them so hard.  They would be under couches, in the attic, the trunk of our cars; I honestly cannot remember all the places he hid them, but Jonathon and Deanna do!!!  Just ask them.  So I don’t really need to elaborate too much more about his orneriness, do I?  SIGH!  But you probably feel the same as I do; that is one of the main things that you really miss about him, right?  So, when you get down in the dumps, just think of Trone watching all of our antics from Heaven…….and imagine....... don't you think he is actually getting a kick out of it all?  Do we really even have to wonder?

 

         In His Love,

        

         Denise

P.S.  Most of the pictures I have of BRET involved his tongue or his back side.  He hated getting his picture taken, but I was persistent!!!  I used to tell my husband that his mother got the only vowel in his first name wrong, and that it should have been an "A!"