It’s finally Spring-like around here!
I can’t resist sharing my all-time favorite post about my dad, our daughter Delaney, and Easter peeps. With a little Mary Poppins thrown in for good measure. This piece was originally posted on the Heart of the Matter in 2023. Enjoy…whether you celebrate Easter or celebrate love…or both. I’m sending hugs. 💕
Just a few months before my dad passed away, the Easter Bunny (aka my mom, Sue) gifted her not quite three-year old granddaughter, Delaney, with an unconventional gift in her basket of goodies. An umbrella. A pretty pink parasol, along with a “Mary Poppins” DVD and the standard jellybeans and marshmallow “Peep” confections.
When she was doing well, Sue was an inspired gift giver and themes were her specialty. That year, she was a fun playmate for Delaney, and they danced and cavorted around the house (no doubt thanks to the sugar rushes they experienced) re-enacting scenes from the Disney classic. They gave the line “just a spoonful of sugar” a little extra oomph when they sang, noshing on candy as if the lyric commanded them to do so. Jellybeans were the perfect prop.
My dad, Sonny, wasn’t too keen on joining the “Chim Chim Cher-ee” brigade, despite his resemblance to Dick Van Dyke, but he WAS willing to hold the pink parasol, per Delaney’s instructions, just as a good grandpa should. She thought he made a perfect “Bert”:
See what I mean? Here’s a pic of Sonny…and one of Dick Van Dyke…around the same age, I think. Just change dad’s scowl to a smirk, add a straw boater chapeau and boom! Look-alikes!
As I searched for photos from that Easter, the only pic I could find was the one I’ve snipped in of Sonny holding Delaney’s frilly bumbershoot. It’s out of the shot, but just to his left was a mound of “Peeps” shaped like bunnies. He considered them an Easter delicacy and when we weren’t looking, he’d pluck Peeps from our baskets into his mouth. Sometimes two at a time.
Focused on his Peeps, he didn’t dance to tunes from “Mary Poppins”, but he taught Delaney the proper way to eat a Peep. “Ears first” he instructed. “Chomp those ears off first!” Before long Delaney couldn’t have cared less that he was a reluctant dancer – she crawled on his lap to eat Peeps – mimicking his aggressive munching with giggly abandon.
Still, Delaney was a tough negotiator. Her non-negotiable for the Mary Poppins-averse Grandpa? He was required to hold the ruffly pink parasol. No excuses. So, he did. For about an hour until she collapsed in a heap from all the revelry, despite the sugar.
We had no idea that Sonny would pass away just three months later. Every photo from Easter that year is precious and I’m still trying to track down pics that exist somewhere…chronicling the Mary Poppins sing-along and the Peep-eating lessons. I’ll find them…eventually.
My sweet sister Lisa and I were reminiscing yesterday, and she reminded me of yet another slice of silliness with dad…another Peep-inspired memory. Lisa recalled, in great detail, how our dad would smack his lips and ooh and aah when he devoured the first of many Peeps, declaring “Ah…nothing’s better than the first, fresh Peep of the season!” Fresh Peeps? An improbability, an impossibility. Never has there been a more manufactured sweet.
I love Lisa’s time travel tendencies and her natural gift for seeing the good. I’d forgotten all about his color commentary about Peep-snacking, but Lisa added the fun detail and we’re both smiling, hours later.
Sonny’s love of Peeps (fresh or stale – who would know the difference?) and the sweet story of pink parasols, Mary Poppins, and Easter love, many years ago is on my mind this morning. If you’re celebrating today, Happy Easter to you, but if I were you, I’d go for the chocolate and skip the “you-know-whats”.
Vicki 😊
Hi – I’m Victoria, Vicki, Dr. Vicki. I hold a doctorate in Adult Education and I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), and author of Surviving Sue | Eckhartz Press.
Check out this link to learn more about my book “Surviving Sue” – all about resilience and love.
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Victoria Ponders 
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