#60 Splash!

It’s amazing how many things in life remind you of other people. It doesn’t faze me when something makes me think about my husband, or a friend, or a parent, but due to his loss, there’s always a pang when it’s Eric.

Last week we visited my in-laws and took the kids to the town pool. This is always one of the highlights of our summer visits. They have a fabulous town pool. The pool starts at zero depth and gradually gets deeper so even the littlest toddlers can feel safe and secure at some point. There is a water slide for little kids, of which my 3 year is still afraid, and one for big kids which my 6 year old mastered. There is a deep area for swimming and some shady mushroom like overhangs, right in the shallow end, for Moms. There is even a little splash area in the shallow end.

My 6 year old can swim well although he initially hated the water. Now he loves it and really needs minimal watching at the pool. My 3 year old loves and fears the water all at the same time. He has taken swimming lessons, but still hasn’t gotten the hang of it yet. On this visit, he discovered the splash park next to the pool. Here was an area where he could get wet, but not have to submerge. Somewhere he could run into and out of quickly and without Mommy’s help. Apart from being splashed in the face (which he hates) it was heaven for him. Independence and cool water toys; what more could a 3 year old want?

It occurred to me that Eric would have loved the splash park, both as a kid and as an adult. Eric and I grew up in a town with a lot of lakes. We both took swimming lessons in those lakes and Eric hated them. My mother has pictures of him crying in those lessons. He eventually did learn to swim, and swim well, but it was a process. My memories of going to the “beach” (a lake in our town) growing up were of me swimming and Eric digging in the sand. Although it ultimately turned out that the Chinese were safe from his digging efforts, they might have felt a lot more comfortable had we had a splash park.

Even as an adult I can see Eric liking the splash park; or at least liking playing with my kids there. We have a smaller splash park at our pool (we have a cool pool too, but not as cool as my in-laws’…) and I’m sure Eric has played with my kids there. Only I can’t really picture it. I don’t know if it’s something I’m imagining or something that really happened but I just wasn’t paying that much attention. I didn’t know I needed to.

Thinking of Eric at the splash park brightened my day. Sometimes thinking of him makes me sad, or angry, but that day, it made a good day even better.