Equinox 2018 | Page 42

It is said that the dead look over you to help you through life. My father did that for me, he watched me after he passed away. He watched me make it through school, he watched me get married, he watched me start a family. It’s hard think of my life any other way than what it is right now, with my family in our rundown RV trailer with a shower that rained icicles and a quicksand couch that pulled us in if we sat too long. I wanted my life to change in the blink of an eye, to be rich and far away from home, but now I am back where I started. I take my children to the Badlands, and I will look up into the sky and gaze at the stars thinking of my father. “You know kids,” I say, “my father would bring me here when I was little just like tonight. Your grandpa was a great man and he is someone that you should thank.”

“What should we thank grandpa for Dad?”

“For bringing me here when I was a kid. He made me who I am.” We sat there that evening, around the fire eating our franks and beans and drinking our water.

Thank you, Dad.

Ana Zrnic