Over the hill on the Yellow Brick Road, you never know who you’ll bump into. Today it’s Cinderella.  She looks a lot older, but that’s the way it goes with celebrities.  If we’ve gotten older, so have they.  I found Cinderella sitting in a Café stuffing her face with doughnuts. 

Hey Cinderella, mind if I join you?

CINDERELLA:  Of course not. Have a doughnut.

No thanks, I’m too nervous. I’ve wanted to meet you ever since I was a little girl.  But I have to admit, I never expected to find you shoveling doughnuts down your throat.

CINDERELLA:  Well, I just came back from a visit with my wicked stepmother.

Seriously?  I thought after you married the prince she was out of your life.

CINDERELLA: She was…until she started having health issues. Now she lives in a Nursing Home five minutes from my castle.  She calls me all the time and I feel obligated to visit her once a week.

But she was so wicked to you!

CINDERELLA:  I can’t imagine leaving my stepmother all alone all the time no matter how wicked she is.  No one deserves to be completely abandoned.  Anyway, in the big picture, my stepmother wasn’t really wicked, she was just totally self-involved. Maybe she missed something in her childhood that made her that way.

I see you still have your very kind heart.

CINDERELLA:  You know what kills me?  I loved my father.  He was in my life for a short time, but he was the warmest, kindest, funniest, most creative man in the world.  When he was alive, it felt like a gentle, loving blanket was always surrounding me.

I know what you mean.  I miss my father, too.  He always had the answers. I used to think he was like the Wizard of Oz. There are so many times I wish I could ask his advice or get his take on a situation with my kids.

CINDERELLA:  I know!  And then I ask myself, “Why was I only given a little time with my father? And why am I stuck here year after year with my stepmother?  Why couldn’t it have been the other way around?”

 I miss knowing there’s someone older and wiser watching out for me.

CINDERELLA:  Me too.

Maybe, somewhere, somehow, our dads are watching over us…

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Do you miss your dad, too?

And…by the way, a big shout out to Barbara Rosenberg for her Cinderella illustration.  Check out Barbara’s original, hysterical cartoons and other stuff at:

https://www.facebook.com/barbara.rosenberg.94

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