When I was a young teenager - probably back in '69 or '70, I met and became friends with a boy from church, Johnny Wyatt. We were close for several years, spending a good amount of time together. An offshoot of being Johnny's friend was that I also became friends with his parents, Jake and Sue Wyatt.
Mrs. Wyatt died several years ago, and Mr. Wyatt recently joined her. I have lots of memories of them, and I thought I'd share a few of this couple that have a piece of my heart.
When I think of Mr. Wyatt, I see a man with a big smile on his face. I remember him happy, laughing and joking, and with a twinkle in his eye. He was a fan of music, and I remember him enjoying being with his friend Coy Moses, playing on their guitars. I remember Jake as a generous and sincere man. He worked hard at his job with the newspaper, and he liked sports.
I was closer to Mrs. Wyatt - it was probably a girl thing. She lived in a house of men (even the dog, if I remember that right!) and she enjoyed my girl company. I don't remember her loving to toil in the kitchen, but I do remember her making crunchy bread sticks out of hot dog buns, putting butter and garlic on them and baking them in the oven. Yum! I also remember she made really good iced tea. And it was instant! I've not had good instant tea since I had it at her house.
I credit the Wyatt's with my love of going out to eat! My family didn't eat out much, but the Wyatt's did, and I was often invited to go with them. I enjoyed being included with their family, and loved going out to lots of different restaurants!
As the years went by, Johnny and I went in different directions to different locations, and I didn't see his parents again. Mom kept me up-to-date from her visiting with the Wyatt's at church.
The news of Johnny getting married was fun to hear. There were lots of reasons that I liked the idea of Johnny marrying Kathy Hall, and one of them was because I could easily see Johnny's parents loving her as much as Johnny did. I never talked to Mrs. Wyatt about it, but I just know that she loved having Kathy as her daughter-in-law.
And I just know that when their grandbabies began coming, they had love in their hearts that they never could have dreamed of.
Mom told me several years ago that she had seen Mr. Wyatt at church. She said he asked about me and told her he'd love to see me sometime. It breaks my heart that I didn't go by to see him on one of my visits back to San Angelo.
I'm sad that I missed an opportunity that will never come again.
Are you missing one right now?
(In loving memory of Jake and Sue Wyatt)
