Rainy Day Sunshine

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please." - Mark Twain


In the movie A Country Called Home  Cole and his younger sister Ellie live in LA, a far cry from growing up in a small Texas town. They have chosen to live their own lives apart from their drunken father, whom they haven't seen in years. One day Ellie gets a call from her step-mother, whom she never met, and explains to Ellie that her father has passed away. Ellie decides to fly to Texas for the funeral, but her brother Cole doesn't feel obligated.

Upon Ellie returning home to Texas for the first time in years, Ellie realizes she regrets not making amends with her father as she exclaims, "I always thought I still had time before he died."
That alone is a message for all of us!

Ellie meets a lot of imperfect people similar to her, held back from their potential by the self destructive nature of a loved one. But in Ellie's case, she chose to move on and build a life of her own, but never forgetting where she came from. In fact, Ellie became a furniture designer inheriting traits from her father whom she watched as a kid as he built and refurbished guitars.

Many of the townsfolk considered Ellie an ungrateful kid for leaving home and never returning. But, many of them did not know what Ellie and her brother faced growing up in a broken home and she made those facts known to them:

1. Her father was an alcoholic, a tough man to live with.

2. He sold the kids clothes and toys in yard sales because they were poor.

3. Ellie and Cole were in the family vehicle when their dad was driving drunk one night and got into an accident which killed their mother.

4. And, Ellie's lasting memory of her father was him selling the violin he had specially made for her on her birthday because he needed the money.

Something for all of us to remember:

Everyone has a story to tell, don't judge them until you hear their story.

Upon first arriving in town, Ellie went to the hospital where a nurse would hand Ellie an envelope left by her father; a key was in the envelope. She didn't give much thought into that key until it was time to head back home. She goes to the bank, discovers the key is to a safe deposit box, and finds a hand crafted violin placed in it, a violin just like the one her father made her as a child, only this one is carved with her initials on it.

Sure, everyone can have a happy ending to their own story, but don't forget you can have a happy middle of your story, too. If you need to forgive someone don't wait until it's too late, just do it!