Richard was a fan of Jolly Ranchers.
In case you don’t know, Jolly Ranchers are rectangular blocks of fruit flavored hard candy. Each Jolly Rancher comes individually wrapped in cellophane wrappers.
He had lots of them in his apartment. There were a couple of containers of them on his desk. There was a cup full on an end table. There was also a huge unopened bag of them in one of his kitchen cabinets.
Because of the strong chemicals used to fumigate Richard’s apartment after his death, I tossed out all the candy he had in open containers. I didn’t trust the cellophane wraps that were just twisted closed on the ends to keep the chemical fog away from the candy.
But I was sure the big unopened bag was OK and I brought it home when I cleaned out his apartment.
Over the past two and a half years I’ve eaten Richard’s Jolly Ranchers. I would think of him with each piece. It was like sharing a little bit of his life again.
We also “gave some to Richard” at candy giving times by tossing them on his grave – with the wrappers removed of course.
Today we went to the cemetery and did a bit of Halloween decorating at Richard’s grave. Debbie tossed out some candy for Richard.
In that candy she tossed on his grave was the last of Richard’s Jolly Ranchers. There were two left and she gave them to Richard.
They were his of course, and it’s only right he gets to finish them off. The wrappers were getting hard to peel away from the candy and it was time to do something with them.
But it seems along with the last chunk of the candy he loved and bought with his own money, another piece of my kid is gone.
Yes, that’s pretty silly when you really think about it. But then, having to bury one of your kids is pretty silly too.
Happy Halloween kid, I hope you enjoy the candy.
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