Ali was for all intensive purposes my step daughter from the time she was 4-years-old till she was six. I remember the day like it was yesterday when Ali, her neighbor Randi and Randi's younger sister Michaela were with me at the Cedarwood Apartment complex swimming pool early one Saturday afternoon. One of the neighbors asked the girls to quiet down. Really? At 1 p.m., maybe 2 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, your asking two 5-year-olds and a 4-year-old to be quiet in a public place. Petty stuff indeed.
Dozens of times over an entire summer I was fortunate to witness little Ali Bear and her two next door neighbor pals laughing and having fun at the tenant swimming pool. Just added to my bucket list, a video camera rolling as me and several little girls are in front of the camera and doing nothing but laughing hysterically.
From the years 2000-2004 I was a preschool teacher at the YWCA, A Special Place and three months before Ali was 3-years-old, she joined our school. Before she turned 4-years-old she was one of eight children in my group of kids, 'The Brown Bears.' Her smile back then was just as infectious from the above photo.
The picture below features the two sister Randi and Michaela who used to swim with Ali bear. Their brother Nathan was not even born yet, this picture was taken 2-years after the the summer of laughs.
Again I thank Debby for giving me those things that once belonged to Ali who was a huge part of my life for three years. Suddenly she was gone of all the life's she left her mark upon...
Shrouded in doubt and caught in an onslaught of wondrous despair, left to ponder why for the rest of my life.
In July of 2009, I spent a whole month at Debby and Joe's place in Nevada when Ali was 12-years-old. One day, Ali and I took Irene, (my Saturn) out for a spin with their family dog in one of the many deserts of Nevada. I allowed Ali to drive while I sat in the passenger seat. Her step dad Joe must have taken Ali out driving many times, because she was a very good driver. I was only nervous once when Ali drove the green dragon up a large one lane hill and it dead ended, I taught Ali to make a 'y' turn. At one point I honestly thought the two of us were going to crash down the very steep hill. My inside emotions were frantic, but on the outside, I knew better then to freak her out, so calm (outwardly)
"Hit the breaks," I said.
She took direction extremely well, was able to back Irene up without taking us down the other side of the hill, and slowly, but surely Ali bear made the 'y' turn and the both of us made it back to civilization unscathed. Ali told on herself and Debby gave me an ear full for letting Ali drive, and Ali defended me by claiming I was good driving teacher.
"Mark doesn't yell and scare me when I'm driving like you do mom," Ali said.
As a sole entity with no immediate family of my own I sometimes have dark visions of Mother Nature getting so disgusted with the human race, she showers the entire planet with acid rain and meteors the size of mountains until every last human is gone forever. It's my only explanation why people as sweet and lovable as Ali are taken away, so she doesn't have to witness her own death as Mother Nature rids this beautiful planet of money, greed, power and rap music. I'm ashamed to be human right now.
Whew, I've vented some. The above mention of Mother Nature wiping out the entire human race was derived from some of my dark poetry written in the 90s which one of my then friends titled "Dark Mark."
Ali's step dad Joe Wyatt said Ali was looking to harness a scholarship to college playing soccer and that she wanted to be a psychologist in a mental institution. Who knows, If things would have worked out, I just might have been Ali's first patient.
