Stealing Kisses

My mom's wedding ring that's going on 36 years old!

I'm eating my oatmeal when my dad stands in front of me, smiling like he's done something semi-naughty.

"I told your mother I have a boo-boo and she needs to kiss me on the lips, not on the boo-boo, because her healing life force powers will travel from her lips to mine and all the way to the boo-boo, and that will heal my boo-boo."

He notices he has another cut and goes to the adjoining room where my mom is.

I hear my mother in the other room ignoring him, "That's an old cut. You don't get a kiss for cuts with scabs on them."

"You're cheap!" Dad tells Mom, pretending his feelings are hurt.

Mom fires back, "They're my kisses!"

Dad wanders back to where I am, pretending to look defeated. He looks at his arms. The poor man is all beat up from helping my brother do construction work at his house. Dad's eyes light up when he discovers another cut about an inch long.

"Hmmm...this is a long cut. Your mother will need to give me a really long kiss or a couple of short ones to heal it."

And off he went to find her again.

By the way, in the picture above, that's the wedding ring Dad gave Mom just over 35 years ago. I took that picture about three years. Somehow, I get the feeling they still love each other as much as the day they said, "I do."