Three rown in front of me sat an older man in a wheelchair. To his right sat his daughter and two grandsons. He was here to support his only granddaughter. It was her first concert and he knew she wanted him to be there. It had been a struggle to get him in and out of the car because of the wheelchair, but he had been strong. As his granddaughter walked onto the stage, the biggest smile I have ever seen creeped onto his face. Her name was Kelly and she played the clarinet; she was in 7th grade. They played the first song--Renegade Dances and at the end, her grandfather clapped along with everyone else. The next song, British Masters' Suite, had three movements: Marching Song, Nimrod, and Sine Nomine. After playing the first movement, everyone in the audience was silent, patiently waiting for the next movement to start. Everyone except for her grandfather who yelled, "Yeah!" into the silence with a grin pasted on his face. Embarrassed, his daughter, Katie, reached over and slapped her hand across his mouth and hissed, "Shut up!" Hurt, he just nodded his head and sat there for the next movement. At the end of the next movement, once again with a silent audience, his daughter slapped her hand across his mouth to make sure he wouldn't say anything. And he just sat there. The band played the last movement of the song and as expected, I watched his daughter put her hand across his mouth. But as she did, the whole audience started to clap, including the little girls grandfather. Much to my surprise, Katie took her hand from her fathers face and let him be for the time being. His granddaughter played her last song and walked off the stage with the rest of her class. He just sat there and clapped. The high school played their songs and then the 6th grade band walked onto the stage. The old man recognized a little boy from down the street and yelled, "Yay! Go!" I watched Katie reach over and smack her fathers leg and hiss, "Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!" He looked at her with pain in his eyes and turned to watch that little boy play his trumpet. In the middle of the song, he reached over and took his daughters hand with glassy eyes and whispered, "I love you." His daughted just smiled back and continued listening to the music. He continued to hold her hand until the end of the song when he started to clap and say, "Yay! Good job! Go! Yay!" Once again, her hand ended up over his mouth, the other one squeezing his leg, and telling him to shut up.
"But why?" he asked.
"Because you're embarrasing!" Katie answered.
"But it's so good! The music is pretty!"
"I don't care, shut up!"
"But Kate, I love you!"
"Dad, be quiet!"
"YAY!" and he continued to clap for that little boy.And then she slapped him again. I stopped watching. This was Thursday night at Brett's band concert. I watched this whole scene play out in front of me for two hours. It was so hard. How could a man be so sweet and his daughter push him away? This man was mentally retarded and that embarrassed his daughter. She was embarrassed to be seen with him in public. She didn't like him making scenes. He is her own FATHER, how can she hear him say that he loves her and say nothing back? It just blew me away.. I could never treat my dad like that, never.
So I put this in here just to get it out.. I thought it would make a good story.. so there it is.
Love .. abby
