My personal Mayberry....

 Celebrities pass away nearly every week...  and most of us have a few we truly love, and when those are gone from this earth, sometimes the passing is shocking, sudden, too soon...

Today, when I saw the little notes on Facebook that told me Andy Griffith had died, I just felt sad.  First, I knew my mother would feel really bad.  She doesn't like a lot of stars any more, and she and Daddy watched Andy's reruns every single day...  They loved Andy, Opie, Aunt Bea---- and Mom loved Barney (Don Knotts).

When I told her today, she just quietly said, "Oh, no.....I've been thinking about him so much lately...."

Andy Griffith was such a symbol of our childhood...  and of our parents' golden days.  When he was at his prime, my parents were right there, too...  I could count on Andy the way I counted on them to know what to do, to try what they knew, and to fix the problems in a gentle, homespun way...  I loved the way Andy dealt with conflict and all the range of emotions his family and friends threw at him...  He wasn't perfect, but he sure kept his kindness whenever he could...  He always reminds me of my Daddy...  never causing a fight, never giving up...  always giving life the best chance it could have.

Mayberry living is the dream we have of life among friends in a village filled with love, morality, and kindness..... I personally live in a kind of Mayberry, and when something shatters that ideal, I just slip over to dwell in my own emotionally soothing Mayberry where life is a whole lot sparklier!

Other celebrities have broken my heart and torn me apart with their passing, such as Princess Diana and a few more...  But Andy didn't do any of that. Not good, old Andy..... He just whistled his way across that bridge with that little boy and their fishing pole, taking my perfect childhood just a bit more over to the other side.