Walk with me daughter. The sand shifts.(Kevin Hughes) Walk with me , Daughter.
by Kevin Hughes

“Walk with me Kevina Kay.” I said. Just as she-almost twenty years earlier-had said to me: “Walk with me Daddy.” Both walks were on sand., on the beach, near the water. Both walks were to give thanks. The first walk with Kevina, took place almost twenty years ago, on beach in Hawaii. She took my hand, so much bigger than her hand then, and wrapped her curious little fingers around mine. She thanked me, for her life…at five. The she smiled, giggled, and ran off with that squirming, joyful,gait, that only a five year old can manage. I watched, overwhelmed, as tears of thankfulness ran down my face to join the sand. A one man flow of tide.

The sand shifts.

This second walk, is again, on sand. Each step on the sand takes me farther from my daughter, but brings my daughter closer to her husband, Greg. The sand shifts, glides, tumbles beneath our feet, as like me, it tries to find its new place. Her feet move a little quicker, anxious to move into her future, as she sees her new husband, feet firmly planted on the sand, she realized that where Greg is, is not sand, but, ground. High Ground. Ground that will support her forever. I was her escort over the sand in her life, he will be her companion on the solid ground. I smile.

The Sand shifts.

As I stand next to my daughter for those last few moments, just a Dad thanking his daughter for her life; I realize how well Kevina Kay has chosen her wedding spot. A beach. A place where one thing ends, and another, begins. Where the edge of one blurs into the edge of the other. Where you choose to decide which is the beginning and which is the end. Kevina Kay chose well. I could choose to say: “Goodbye, and thank you.” to Kevina Kay.” Instead,
I chose to say: “Welcome , to you Greg. And thank you.”

The sand shifts.

By Kevin Hughes, on his daughter’s Wedding Day.

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