DOWN HOME: Call to daughter transcends time

Posted: 5/12/06

DOWN HOME:
Call to daughter transcends time

Lindsay’s voice in my ear transported me through time and space. And what a trip it was.

Physically, I was driving home from work, headed out of Dallas, through Farmers Branch and Carrollton, on toward Lewisville. Emotionally and spiritually, I was lingering in an elementary school hallway in Nashville, Tenn., reluctantly turning loose of my firstborn child’s tiny hand as she walked into her kindergarten classroom for the first time.

I called Lindsay one afternoon last week, just a few hours after she completed her last final exam of her senior year at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene. For the past couple of days, she had been working on an accounting project, studying for that final final and writing a cover letter to send with her resumé to a prospective employer.

She handled this high-stakes juggling act with her usual sense of calm, but I felt my own anxiety rise as I pondered the significance of the day in the life of this daughter, whom I cherish more than my next breath.

So, I did what I’ve done for the past 22 years and six months: I talked to Lindsay about her day.

No, I didn’t wake her up; she was just watching TV and resting from the rigors of academia. Yes, she finished the project, and the test went well. Sure, she was relieved to “finally” be finished. Yeah, four years at HSU just flew by. Later, she and Aaron, her still-new husband, would go to the phone store and then out to eat.

As we talked (and, by the way, the most beautiful music in the world is the sound of the voices of Lindsay; her mama, Joanna; and her sister, Molly), my mind drifted back over so many moments of her educational process: Reading to little Lindsay, trying to instill a love of books and learning. That first day of kindergarten, and a year later, how small she looked in the back seat of my car, as we drove across town to first grade. Homework at the kitchen table. Field days. Back-to-school nights. Her how-to-make-a-mask presentation. Fifth-grade “graduation.” Choir concerts. Drill team performances at football games. Driver’s ed. Her egg-dropping-off-the-bleachers science project. HIgh school graduation. The agonizing day we moved her into the dorm at HSU, then hugged and kissed her goodbye. Visits to campus and her returns home.

Through the years, we sat at the dinner table night after night, and I quizzed Lindsay and Molly about their day at school. “How was your day?” I’d ask. “Fine,” they’d reply. “What did you learn?” I’d inquire. “Nothin’,” they’d report.

Amazingly, this girl who almost never learned anything significant in a single day was on the verge of completing her academic career without ever making anything but an “A.”

And as proud as I am of her academic achievements, I’m more proud of the person she has become: A committed fellow Christian. A responsible member of society. A friend.

—Marv Knox