Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – David Wainland

April 20, 2006

A Visit to Vegas

By David Wainland

We have recently returned from a week in Las Vegas and while you would think we had journeyed there for the usual reasons you would be wrong. This trip held a specific ulterior motive. It was a pilgrimage to my granddaughter, Skylar.

A little over a year ago my sons fianc?, Kira and now widow, remarried and in December her husband, Robert convinced her that they should begin a new life in a new paradise.

Seeing them go broke my heart, so soon after Jeremy’s passing and now I was losing his only other connection and link to my heart. This adorable, blond, blue eyed bundle of smiles and joy was being taken from me. It hurt, still hurts, will forever hurt and it is hard to separate the two pains.

But, move on we must. So I flew the five hours to the desert with my wife beside me. Who knows what was going on in her mind? Jamie keeps her own council. We are strong, but not indestructible, brave but not fearless, positive though not unaffected by circumstance.

Would seeing her again and being separated once more hurt as much as the first time or would I be able to leave her secure in the knowledge that she was being loved, cared for and guided in all the right paths?

From the first moment at her door when this three year old vixen charged me and threw her stubby arms around my waist, to the last and final parting four days after, I knew there was nothing to fear. Her memory of her grandmother and her Poppy had sustained the separation and that her parents would never let that link be broken.

As we separated she held my hand and said, “I’m scared.” I smiled at her. Kissed her for the quadrillionth time and promised I would be back soon.

“Sure,” she said with a new smile spreading across her face. “Just get on a big airplane and then we can play tomorrow.”

She was right, Vegas is not a divorce, it is only a plane ride away

David Wainland

David @ DavidWainland.com

About Me:

I am a professional artist and metal sculptor known as Sculptoons and I’m the creator of custom tabletop items. I paint as well as cartoon. My work is displayed at art festivals in Florida.

My passion is writing and I have completed two novels, Matecumbe Key ©, about the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane and Red Absinthe ©, a murder mystery set in 1926 New Orleans. When I am not working on my art I write stories, poetry and essays about life.

I’m married and the father of two. My son passed away in July of 2003 and left behind a beautiful daughter. Just one of my three grandchildren. My daughter and her family live in New Jersey