Tap On My Shoulder - David Ringwood (May 2025)

Have you ever had a great idea that came out of the blue? I know I have, in fact, I had one today. Whenever this happens to me I spend half of my time enjoying the idea and the other half wondering what inspired it.

This morning while taking Cooper out for his morning walk, Mom’s book, THE SUN STILL RISES, popped into my mind. I don’t know how or why. All I know is that it was there, on a sunny morning, on May 1st, ten days before Mother’s Day, one day for each of us. I swear someone was tapping me on my shoulder.

As we continued our walk, with Mom’s book still in my mind, I began searching for meaning. Why today? Why Mom’s book? As Cooper and I got to the end of our stroll it occurred to me - a Mother’s Day gift for Mom, her grandchildren and great grandchildren from her 10 children.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, thanks to the creativity of Teresa, the Ringwood Family Tree continues to grow. Lately, Teresa has put a premium on capturing not only our thoughts and ideas but our voices as well. With this in mind, I have the following idea for a Mother’s Day gift for Mom. I’m quite certain that it was Mom tapping me on my shoulder this morning to share her suggestion.

What if we create our own audio book on the RFT? - THE SUN STILL RISES by Joan C. Ringwood. Mom’s memories and words, our voices. We could divide the book into 10 segments and each read a part. If you recall, toward the end of the book Mom writes about each of us. I’m thinking that it might be fun to read Mom’s memories of another sibling - Nancy reads about Bob, Mike reads about Peter and so on down the line.

In the Comments section of the RFT, let me know what you think. If everyone is on board, I propose that we have the finished product ready to go in time for Father’s Day.

Thanks for the idea Mom.

PS When he was in middle school, Will selected THE SUN STILL RISES for a book report. He asked me if I thought his teacher would approve of the book. I told him that he should ask and that the worst thing that could happen was that the teacher could say no…she didn’t!