How Right You Are, Son

On Friday morning, Lincoln, Lillie, Mary Margaret, and Jack Henry were preparing to leave for Bartlesville to visit their grandparents. Susie was dispensing last-minute instructions ("Drive safely." "Everyone wear their life jackets on the lake." "Make sure Jack Henry brushes his teeth." "You all help Jack Henry, and be sure to help Grandmother around the house.") She was pretty much speaking to all four of them, but as Jack Henry considered this growing to-do list, it's as if an old truth hit him with renewed force. He said, not flippantly but quite earnestly, "What would we do without Mary Margaret?"