"Another April"

   When I was a young junior high English teacher, one of the contemporary authors we studied was Jesse Stuart, a renowned writer of the time.  One of his short stories was called "Another April."  A young boy describes how his mother carefully bundles his grandfather up on an April day before the old man leaves the house on his first walk of the year around the family's  farm.  The grandfather is old now, and has been confined to the house all winter; as he gets ready to go outside, his daughter dresses him warmly, tying a scarf around his neck, although the weather is warm.  The young boy doesn't understand why his mother is so concerned about her father: he's too young to know of his mother's awareness that her father's run of Aprils will soon come to an end.  The child is aware that his grandfather's walks used to take him across the fields and out of sight, and that the walks have become shorter; this year his grandfather stays close to the house.  The boy is still young enough not to realize that things can not remain the same forever. 
     I taught this story to twelve-year-olds when I was in my early twenties.  Whatever they extrapolated from the story was never fully certain, though they seemed interested in it.  I believed at the time that I fully understood the theme, that the cycle of life is ongoing, yet also involves dying and death.  But that understanding was 2 generations ago, and an awful lot of Aprils have passed by since then.  In just 2 days from now----another April.