The Ocean's Child

In the Northeast corner of the Gulf of Mexico, lies a small chain of
islands known as the 'Cedar Keys'. There are four bridges to connect
them and on the main island of Cedar Key is where this story takes
place. We lived right in the middle of the island. The year is 1988 and
the month was February.

Kodie Desiree' was born in that month, on the ninth day. She weighed
six pounds, seven ounces. My little angel...An angel of the sea.

I loved taking her to the beach and it was only about a three-minute
walk to get there. I would put Kodie in her stroller and say, "Let's
go!" She knew that meant we were going to the giant sandbox with the
water. She would squeal with delight.

We would sit for hours in the moonlight, playing in the sand. We
rarely went in the daytime because of her fair skin. I would make sand
castles and she would knock them down by rocking her carrier. I
purposely built the creations close because she would try so hard to
demolish them. It was hilarious to watch!

I was married, yet, single. He was never home and, when he was, it was
usually in a drunken-comatose state. I learned how to keep Kodie
occupied by using the imagination of the ocean.

Watching the waves roll in at night was one of our favorite pastimes.
It was also the quickest way to put her to sleep. With each crash of
the waves, her eyelids would drop a little more. There she'd sit in her
rocking carrier...Soothed by the waves. She was always in time with the
rolling rhythms.

Once, my mom and I took Kodie clamming. Kodie was too young to walk
around in the water, so we made her a bed in a large washtub. I tied a
rope around my waist and tied it to the handle of the tub. Kodie loved
being pulled around...Lulling with the waves that were rolling around.
We didn't find many clams because we were laughing so hard at Kodie's
antics. We had a great time though.

For a while, I did some part-time work bagging oysters on a bird-dog.
If you're not a 'Cedar-Keyan', it's an aluminum boat. I put a blanket
in the bottom of an oyster crate and laid Kodie in it. She loved riding
in the boat. At the end of each day, when the motor was turned off, she
would have a fit! She never wanted to leave the water. That was where
she was happiest.

Kodie loved to collect 'sea money'. No, not sand dollars...Sea shells.
She thought that this was what the merpeople used for money. Kodie
would tell everyone that she was rich because she had 'sea money'. She
still has a cup of her 'sea money' sitting on her dresser.

I lived with my mom for a while after Kodie was born. We didn't have a
lot of money and made due with what we had. Mom was doing some work
'picking' crabmeat. We used to save the flippers and put them in the
freezer. Kodie was one of many children in Cedar Key that did her
teething on frozen crab flippers. They had been boiled before we froze
them and they lasted almost an hour! Visitors would laugh when they saw
this!

Many dreams begin and end in the ocean. I am just thankful that Kodie
shared hers with me. Dreams that are shared, are dreams that are never
forgotten.