My Bonny Teapot

As most of you know Frankie is my nickname. (I'm not so free as to give out my real one online). Hubby gave me my nickname back when I first met him 20 years ago. I told him about my back surgery that I had had at the ripe age of 14. I told him all about the traction that I was in for eight weeks on a frame bed that was turned every 6 hours or so. The traction involved four nasty screws that went through the skin of my head and into the bone of my skull from which were rigged several pullies and a set of weights. Through my knees were pins about the size of a pencil and when Hubby saw the pictures of me lying in the hospital bed, which was the metal frame much like an ironing board, he said I looked like Frankenstein..... well from that Frankie stuck and I've been called Frankie so long now that I'm sure I don't know my real name. When Hubby happens to call me by my real name now it seems so odd that I can barely stand it.... yet my Mom and Dad still call me by my given name and I answer without blinking an eye. Some people, when they find out why I am called Frankie, won't call me it any more... but I like the name and I have a good story to tell.

For 20 years though I've wanted to come up with a nickname for Hubby. I think I have finally come up with one.

Hubby is renowned for his tea. He makes the best tea ever. Two years ago Hubby took his class on a class trip. While away, he bought for the daughters and me some very nice gifts, among which is a great teapot. I never knew how poignant that would become.

Last night I woke at 4:34 a.m. to a twitching, heaving, Hubby laying in the bed next to me (get your mind out of the gutter).... I knew right away that he was in the throws of a very bad dream.... so very gently I reached across and woke him with a little shake, then I stroked his back as he came through the fog of dreamland to the reality of our bedroom. When he rolled over to look at me, I asked him what he had been dreaming.

He put his head down on the pillow again and gave a great sigh of relief before saying.....

Hubby: I was fighting the devil to save you.

Me: Oh!? What happened?

Hubby: I told you to get under the blanket in our front yard and then we huddled there while the devil loomed closer and closer..... he was a big black cloud and it got really, really cold. I told you we had to think really good thoughts and the only thing I could think of was to sing......

Me: Well what did we sing?

Hubby: I'm A Little Teapot!

Me: : )

Hubby: The devil started to shrink and then Jiggs and I chased him away......


My hero..... I think I will call him My Bonny Teapot.