Today is a big day for John. He will be packing and organizing…..his thoughts will be racing in a red sport car all around his head. For all intents and purposes, he is a Jeff Gordon getting ready for the “big one.” John is already thought out by the time he stands at the start line……thought out and ready. More ready than anyone I know. His middle name is for my dad and he lives up to dad’s mindset. By the time a decision was made, dad had already done it all in his head. “Finishing up” was just a no brainer.

His big brother, George, will be the only family member to join him this trip. Becky is too involved with work situations to be able to go…….and you know about us. We planned to go again…..but…… John, Barbara and George will be touring parts of the Boston area that we couldn’t work in last year and we will have to ride along on the shoe with the chip. We have the advantage of being there so the image is very strong in our minds. I will never, ever, forget the crowd, the faces, the joy of a race well run. Runners are just a different breed from the rest of us.

All this from a little boy who was supposed to be club footed and reading Braille. It’s been a long, long road for John to be at this point in his life. Everything he tackles has been successful……give him a setback and it does no good…..he just comes out of the chute more determined than ever. He has one quality that outdoes all the others……determination. He has this really stupid idea that nothing can fail so long as he puts his whole self in the mix. The laughter died down years ago when he kept showing the rest of us what that means.

OK……so now you have figured out this is his mother writing about him. Not an ordinary mother who sees no fault in her son John…..but one who has looked in the face of a baby who had a lot going against him. What he has done since then is out of the ordinary. John is a winner…………

Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther