Jill's Journal: He called me 'prity'

I’m in love, Brandon Valley Journal readers.

But don’t go pulling your going-to-a-wedding attire out of the closet just yet. This new love of my life is just 8 years old, and obviously, a far cry from getting down on bended knee to propose. 

Nonetheless, he does have my heart. The budding journalist, you see, has a sweet way with words.

My “love story” began a few weeks ago when Carl, our advertising/marketing manager at the Journal, shared with me one of his many “cute kids” stories. He has three, so the stories are plentiful as are the smiles and laughs we share over them.

This particular story centers on Jeremiah, the oldest of his brood of three. He announced that Jeremiah had an immediate desire to make some money. Apparently, he had spied a Spiderman “costume” online, hence his determination to come up with some flash cash. He fired off a couple of ideas to his dad that potentially could earn the 40 bucks needed to transform himself into Spiderman. Ultimately, he settled on writing a book.

I smiled at Jeremiah’s idea. I, too, had made several attempts at writing a “book” as a youngster myself. As one may expect, they were corny stories that eventually went no further than the garbage can. So, I felt giving Jeremiah a little “seed money” would serve as motivation for him to put pencil to paper. 

And it did.

The next day, Carl returned with “chapter two” of Jeremiah’s quest to write a book story. Before any writing could even commence, Jeremiah’s first task was signage. Apparently, when Carl came home from work, he noticed a sign on Jeremiah’s bedroom door, “The Boss is In.”

It had a flip side, too. “The Boss is Out.’

Signage, I learned from Jeremiah’s action, is a must when a writer is at work. (For the record, the door to my office at the Journal is sign-free. The staff knows if the light is on, the boss is in.)

As for Jeremiah’s yet-to-be-titled, single-page book, it tells the story of his dad and I working together to make newspapers. We also went to lunch and then to a ‘festaboll” where we “bot” a robot.

It appropriately ended with “The End” and “All About Me” notes: “I am 8 years old. I play Minecraft. My favorite song is ‘All Star.’” (The song, Carl told me, is from the more-than-20-year-old movie, “Shrek”.)

In his condensed “book,” my 8-year-old Romeo refers to me as ‘prity.’ 

“She is prity,” he wrote.

I’ve read that single line many times since the crinkled piece of paper was handed to me.

I have to say, Jeremiah made my day – better yet – he made my week. I’ll be honest, it’s been awhile since I’ve heard – or read – those words from a ‘man’.

While it’s clear Jeremiah has years to go in perfecting his craft, in my mind, his first “book” rises to the top of my personal “best reads” list.

Despite that we’re more than five decades apart in age, my 8-year-old Romeo will long hold a special place in my heart. As you know, he called me ‘prity.’