Babies and Bunkys

Back in the year 2000, we found in early December that mom was very sick with stage 4 cancer. She did not have a long time to live and was put on Hospice.  The good news was she could be at home in her trailer, the bad news is she was bedridden due to a broken hip. My brother John and his family were down for Christmas, along with many other relatives. I have included a picture of my mom in her bed, in the middle of the living room in a single-wide trailer.  It took up most of the room but she was home, a place she had lived for 24 years.

My mom Stella in her bed during Christmas 2000

My nephews, Israel and Jared, were along with John and Pepe. Izzy had brought his girlfriend Jill too.  One of Jared's favorite places to go on his visits was a local place called Bunkys. Earlier in the year, I had taken my mom there with Lindsay Phelps and Kelly Gosselin, who spent a spring break week with me in April.
It was the place to take visitors to give them a taste of Florida...

Stella, Kelly & Lindsay outside Bunkys

Of course, Izzy and Jared had to visit Bunkys on this trip. I do not think there was a trip for them when we did not make it to Bunkys. It kind of was a tradition.

John & Pepe at Bunkys

Jill & Izzy at Bunkys

 The person who loved to go the most was Jared. You can see it in his smile in the next photo....

Jared very happy to be at Bunkys

 Well, I got to see that great smile again today in a photo, but it was not because we were going to eat conch fritters, or wings, or gator, or oysters...it was because he had just become a new father. Here he is holding his new daughter Paislee  Elizabeth Provoncha, born at 7:15 AM on December 7, 2016.

Jared holding Paislee for the first time

It did not take Jared long to get her into the team spirit. Jared is a big New York Jets fan and I guess he had this bonnet made special....

Paislee with her new bonnet

I want to congratulate Sarah and Jared, from the deepest part of my heart, on the job well done. In honor of my new grand-niece, and because my Doctors appointmenet was postponed, I went to Bunkys for lunch to celebrate.

My bar seat at Bunkys with a Red Stripe

 The food was great. I need to start going there again. It has been a few years...

Raw Oysters at Bunkys

Seafood Gumbo at Bunkys

House Salad with Ranch at Bunkys

 We will have to take Paislee there someday.

In my reminiscing about old times, I found this poem in my clutter...I wanted to end this post with it:

Many years ago when I was twenty three
I got married to a widow who was pretty as could be
The widow had a grown up daughter who had hair of red
My father fell in love with her and soon the two were wed
This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life
My daughter was my mother for she was my father's wife
To complicate the matters worse although it brought me joy
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy
My little baby then became a brother-in-law to dad
And so became my uncle though it made me very sad
For if he was my uncle then that also made him brother
to the widow's grown up daughter who of course was my step-mother
Father's wife then had a son who kept them on the run
And he became my grandson for he was my daughter's son
My wife is now my mother's mother and it makes me blue
Because although she is my wife she is my grandma too
If my wife is my grandmother then I am her grandchild
And every time I think of it, it simply drives me wild
For now I have become the strangest case you ever saw
As the husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa!