for

+Willie Mack Riche+

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a prologue included for father’s day:

the man who bought my kindergarten clothes when i was four years old and paid my Lutheran school monthly tuition for eight years; the man who had the rusty 1972 VW Bug, gifted to me by my boyfriend for high school graduation restored over the summer before my freshman year of college; the man who adored both my son aka “monster” and “bam-bam”, and my first dog, Digby aka “hound”; the man who endured both the devastating loss of custody of and subsequent parental abduction of — and then, the tragic death of his only biological child, a son.

the man who never got the chance to properly retire and healthfully and happily collect his 30-year, hard-earned Teamster’s union pension — and just go fishing all day because he became acutely ill with undiagnosed kidney failure, and spent the last years of his life on thrice-weekly, hours-long dialysis treatment — and his last six months on Earth dying from a rare, aggressive and metastatic cancer.

may his spirit know peace eternally.

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“This used to be my playground.”

and, our proxy for church on spring, summer and fall sabbaths.

These were the halcyon days.

Load up the International Harvester TravelAll with wooden doors and quarter panels – it has two gas tanks, you know.
Bought it used, but pristine
on payments – from the showroom on Logan Boulevard and Elston Avenue with zero credit history and all the usury

Have mercy.

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of fish.

He will bait your hook on the bamboo pole he bought you.
Later, you will insist on the “Pocket Fisherman” – as seen on TV.

Wade in the water, Nappy-Head,
but watch out for the drop-offs in Wolf Lake.
I’m wanna walk all the way out to the island!
You wanna be one of the kids who drownt in this lake?!
But, I know how to swim!!!

Bey-Bey picking autumn “weeds” along the roadside
long stalks and plump seed heads — milkweed, cattails and grasses
for her wicker “weed” basket in the our Project living room
Setting the dried flora arrangement with Aqua-Net hairspray
kept it for more than a decade
added fresh stalks and store-bought eucalyptus from Jewel each year.

Hoping we can stop on the South Side for some soul food;

Stony Island Avenue, Three Sisters, Queen of the Sea,
but only if we make it there before
they run out of mac and cheese and banana pudding, please!

It’s so hard to wait to get home,
but we ain’t allowed to eat anything in the TravelAll,
his original “Pretty Thang”.

But first, they gotta stop in Gary, Indiana for a couple cartons of cigarettes
Phillip Morris Commanders and Salem Light 100s before we cross back into Illinois:

“Rotten Illinois.”

Grab me a beer out that cooler for the ride home, Nappy.
You driving the Skyway back home, Bey?

Put on the radio, W-V-O-N
now I’m’a rest my eyes for a minute,

so, keep watch.

Those were the halcyon days, and

Wolf Lake is where your ashes belong.

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Remember these Sabbaths to keep holy.

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