Favorite memory of the old man.
It was a April afternoon. Only four people at the time knew I knocked up my gf, my parents and her parents. I was sitting in his parlor as great grandma was baking cookies for the church social she was taking part in. Sitting in that room made me feel really small. This man did more shit at my age, than I would ever dream of. While he parachuted into France in WW2, he fought nazis, drank french wine, woo'ed foreign girls, before he came home to marry my great grandmother. I mean he was a man while I was still clinging to momma's apron strings. So he challenged me to a game of chess. He pulled out of his wallet a hundred dollar bill, as was his want. He did this with everyone who he challenged. Beat him and you get the pot. In a box on the table was a stack of hundreds, from all the times no one beaten him.
"So what will you do from here?"
"Huh?"
"You got the look of a man who is caught in a trap, looking for a way out."
"I am okay right now."
"Bullshit, son. You are far from okay. What did you do?"
"I guess you know then."
"Nope, but you just confessed, so out with it."
"I knocked up my girlfriend."
"Wow, barely dry behind the ears and your going off making a man of yourself."
"It sucks."
"It always does, even if you are married and can safely support a family. I made many kids with your great grandmother, and each one left me feeling hopeless a little."
"What can I do?"
"You can be a boy and run away from it, or lace up your boots, grab your rucksack and charge forward. There is no other options, and no saving face."
"I don't plan on leaving her. But there is only so much I can do."
"Its all you can do, to do what you can."
We talked and of course he trounced me soundly in all five games we played. He smoked his Cuban as he gave me the facts of life. When he passed away, his lawyer brought me a box with the coat in it folded neatly. Inside the coat was the small wooden box with over three grand in it. I learned later that he always knew that I was going to make the right choice. The money came at a time where we needed it the most. That memory always makes me smile and makes my day. A man who faced a tough life acknowledged me as a man, was kind of special to me.