Every October, Diane complained about my Halloween decorations. So when she called the scarecrow from my late father\u2019s garage creepy, I ignored her.<\/p>\n
Days later, I noticed someone kept turning it toward her house. When I caught Diane beside it, I threatened to take it down.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo!\u201d she pleaded. \u201cPlease don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next morning, she lifted its sleeve, revealing a carving: \u201cR + D OCT. \u201979.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Robert was my father. Diane was the other initial.<\/p>\n \u201cWe made him together,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n They had been childhood neighbors who fell in love. Halloween was their tradition\u2014Dad built decorations, and Diane painted them. But her parents disapproved and moved her away. Distance, delayed letters, and misunderstandings eventually separated them.<\/p>\n Years later, she returned hoping to reconnect, only to see Dad with my mother, pregnant with me. She left without knocking.<\/p>\n Diane admitted my decorations reminded her of what she\u2019d lost. She turned the scarecrow toward her house because she used to see it from her bedroom window.<\/p>\n Searching Dad\u2019s garage, I found their photographs and letters. When I brought them to Diane, we discovered a newer note beneath the box\u2019s lining.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved who Diane and I were. I don\u2019t wish away who I became. I love my wife, and Susan is the best thing that ever happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Diane smiled through tears. Dad had remembered her while loving the life he built afterward.<\/p>\n On Halloween, she helped repair the scarecrow\u2019s painted smile and shared stories about Dad that made me laugh again.<\/p>\n \u201cShould I turn him toward your house?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n She straightened his hat.<\/p>\n \u201cLeave him facing the street.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every October, Diane complained about my Halloween decorations. So when she called the scarecrow from my late father\u2019s garage creepy, I ignored her. Days later, I noticed someone kept turning it toward her house. When I caught Diane beside it, I threatened to take it down. \u201cNo!\u201d she pleaded. \u201cPlease don\u2019t.\u201d The next morning, she …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24527,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24525\/revisions\/24527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}