Because I Love You

Whatever you want me to be, I’ll be. Wherever you want me to go, I’ll go. Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do. It’s my desire to be……… Just what you want me to be. It’s my desire, my desire.  It’s my desire, to be……. Just what you want me to be.   Those were the words of a song I sang as a kid in Antioch Baptist Church’s youth choir in the 1970’s. Growing up, church songs were the only songs to which I knew all the words. Sometimes I would sing along with the radio to artists like, The Commodores, Teddy Pendergrass, Peabo Bryson, or Earth Wind and Fire, but I mimicked the words I didn’t know. Was it, “Love has found a way in my heart tonight, or “Love has a holiday in my heart tonight,” in Love’s Holiday by Earth Wind? Was Lionel Richie of the Commodores singing, “I’m easy like Sunday morning,” or, “I’m leaving next Sunday morning?” So when I auditioned as a young adult for a community theatre production of Dream Girls, my audition song was a gospel song from church. I don’t r...

Lois Spotts, Tina, Grandma Rose, circa 1995 She was with me, Grandma Rose, my mother-in-law. She seemed sad. She was wearing her signature house dress with rope belt. Rose stood over me quietly pondering something, watching and observing like she did from time to time, studying us, her children, grandchildren, and daughters-in-law like me.   Rose always had a big heart. Although the words she spoke weren’t exactly “I love you,” they were laced with love, that is, they usually asked a lot of questions or told you what to do.   “Do you pack Roger’s bag when he travels?”   “What kind of food are you cooking for supper?”   “You’re gonna roll my hair for me tonight.”   “What’cha doing in the kitchen?”   “No, you can’t have the key to the freezer.”   “Don’t cut that cake until Sunday.” Many times, she would send us things we didn’t ask for but she knew we needed them before we did. “Now I bought this little sweater for Cannaday, I got it for $2.00, see. I wa...