A Father's First Snow

It was a cold January night. Well, of course it was cold, it was snowing. It would be surprising if it were snowing and it weren't cold.

I stood on my porch with my beautiful wife in my arm. She was wearing her fuzzy purple robe she loved. We were watching our two kids, Jolei and Summit. Yes, we're that white couple who gives "original" names to our kids. Jolei and Summit were experiencing their first winter snow. My wife and I were hoping that it would have snowed before Christmas, but this was good, too. We're just glad it snowed.

Jolei grabbed a handful of snow and pounded it into a ball. She threw the snowball at her brother, which triggered a war. Summit tried to throw a snowball back in retaliation, but missed and hit me. The kids laughed.

"Oh, you think this is funny?" I asked, brushing the snow off my clothes. "I'll show you what's funny!"

---

After a little while, Melissa, my wife, got too cold which meant it was time for everyone to go back inside. We walked back in and I started preparing some hot cocoa to bring our bodies to a comfortable temperature.

"Dad," Summit looked up to me as I handed him his mug. "What was your first winter snow like?"

I paused before handing out everyone else's mugs. I had told Melissa this story, but I was just realizing I hadn't told the kids this story. I sat down in my chair and turned towards my kids.

"When I was a kid - a little bit younger than you, Jolei - I got sick."

"How old were you?" Jolei asked.

My son was 10 at the time, and my daughter had just turned 7 at the end of December.

"I was five," I answered. "I was nine before I was able to go home. I was really sick. You see, I had cancer. I don't know if either of you know what that is: It's a sickness people can get sometimes that takes a long time to get rid of. The doctors were able to get rid of it a few times, but it kept coming back. That's why it took so long."

"So when did you get to see snow?" Summit asked.

"I was 9 when I finally got to see snow," I said. "I was 8 when I got out of the hospital, but that was during the summer."

"Tell that what it was like, sweetie," Melissa said.

The memories started flooding back to me. All I could remember before then was the hospital room. Everything about the snow was a new experience for me. I had never been so cold. I loved it. I had never seen such a vastness of the color white - even the walls of the hospital weren't as white as the snow. Everything was new and I fell in love with it all the instant I experienced it. I must have made about 100 snow angels. I then ran to my backyard and made a snowman family. The mom, the dad and three kids - just like my family.

I told my kids everything, sparing no detail. The kids, who were normally very chatty, listened to every word without interruption. I was blinded from the lights reflecting off my wife's teeth, her smile was so big. I went on for what seemed like hours until I couldn't say anything else about that night. I remembered like it was the night before. It was as if I was still a kid and I had just come back inside from making those snowmen. I took my first sip of my hot cocoa - it was cold.

Melissa wiped a tear from her eye. "I never heard the story like that," she said, her voice trembling with emotion. "That was beautiful."

I smiled at her and looked at my kids. I know Thanksgiving is in November, but I was feeling mighty thankful in that moment. I love my family. I'm glad my kids got to experience their first snow, I'm glad I was there to witness it, I'm glad to have my family and I'm looking forward to experiencing many more winter snows with this group of people. My favorite people.