Happy Birthday Daryl Grindrod

Today was Daryl's birthday - would have been his 41st. I know I am not the only one who thought of it/him today and in the days leading up to today. When I spoke to Chris today, she closed our conversation with, "Happy Daryl's Birthday," and I wished her the same. Daryl's' memory lives on.

It's no wonder then, when I sat down for a few quick minutes of TV before Mark joined me, that Steel Magnolias was on, actually, it was almost over.

Daryl and I always loved a "good cry" sort of movie. We agreed that a movie was only really great, if you could laugh really hard and cry really hard in the same movie. I remember clearly sitting in his parent's family room watching Steel Magnolias, hoping for a really good cry. We rented it in fact, because we were looking for a good 'cry' movie. We waited in fact for the 'cry' to happen. We were looking for a movie to top our Beaches (Better Middler) experience.

We cried. I mean there are sad parts in Steel Magnolias, but in the end, we were a little disappointed that we didn't cry the way we did when we watched Beaches. I guess we were looking for an all out bawl or maybe an 'ugly cry,' as Oprah would call it.

When I flipped on Steel Magnolias tonight, it was at the 'cry' part of the movie, and naturally I thought of Daryl instantly, and knew he was thinking of me too. It would have been even better if I had turned on TV only to find Beaches! Maybe next year Daryl! Nice try.

Happy Birthday Bud! Miss you!