By Ernie McCray

Tawny and Nyla

(These words were written in honor of my daughters being newly weds now. Tawny jumped the broom with Terry, her man, on August 27th and Nyla tied the knot with Phill on December 13th, the 35th anniversary of when her mom and I got married.)

We couldn’t wait for Tawny and Nyla to arrive and when they did we, Nancy and I, began singing them a little playful song I conceived in a moment:

“Tawny Maya, you my girl, say now, you my girl, say now, you my girl.
Nyla Summer, you my girl, say now, you my girl, say now, you my girl.
Tawny and Nyla, prettiest in the world, say now, prettiest in the world,
say now, prettiest in the world…”

After a while they would babble and coo, say now, babble and coo, say now, babble and coo. We loved those girls so much we didn’t know what to do, say now, we didn’t know what to do.

And, my did it go by fast. It seemed I blinked and before I could bat my eyes again they were taller than the dining room table, strong and able, fans of Big Bird, hanging on to Mr. Rogers’ every word, begging for Strawberry Shortcake wardrobes, asking a million questions that probed into local matters and issues around the globe,  swimming like Esther Williams, running like Wilma Rudolph, tapping like Shirley Temple, wanting to cook on the stove, counting and spelling and reading and writing big words on paper and on the sidewalk and in the sand, playing the piano and flute and clarinet in the Memorial Junior High Band, going to proms in dresses they bought from stores that carried items that were secondhand, entertaining us with singing and dancing and play acting via video cameras, as only they, and their dear, Lina, could do, graduating from San Diego High then SDSU… No one sweeter and more talented in the world than those two. They’re my girls, sweetest in the world.

I’ll never forget the moment I heard that instead of one child we were having two. “Ernie,” Nancy said, “remember in Spain how I was beating your pants off on the tennis courts.” I, of course, answered “Yeah!” as an athlete doesn’t ever forget having their pants beat off on any playing field or court. “Well, it wasn’t two against one,” she went on to say. “It was three against one.” We had been joking that her tennis game was extra sharp during her pregnancy because she had help from the baby in utero. It took me a moment or so to figure out that, that, hey, “We’re having twins! Are we being punished for our sins?” Actually, though, I said no such thing. It didn’t take long for my heart to sing. And from the time they arrived throughout all of their lives they captured my heart for eternities.

Not everyone, however was as excited as we. The receptionist at the girls’ first doctor’s appointment, a woman who looked like she’d swallowed a large dose of some kind of poisonous ointment, asked, surprisingly, with no Fee-Fi-Fo-Fums, “Who’s next?” in a drill sergeant kind of way. “We are” we answered, hoping we weren’t going to be her appetizer for the day.

“So those are the twins everybody’s been fussin’ ’bout, huh? I bet they’re DOUBLE TROUBLE! I’ve got one kid myself and I’d just as soon hoist mobile homes than have two of them around, I must say! Twins! Yechhh! No way, Jose!”

We eventually ended up in an examining room where a friendly smiling nurse said “How do you do” and weighed our girls in kilograms and asked which one was who. She was like a breath of fresh air. And that’s what Tawny and Nyla have been in our lives – a breath of fresh air. Sometimes they’ve made the ups seem down and the downs seem up but most of the time they’ve lit up my life with glee. Yessiree.

And, here they are, now, at age 35, still adorable, so connected to the world, so very much alive, one a journalist with a nice writing style, the other takes care of children for others with tenderness and gifted expertise and has been doing that for a while. Both married now, with one child between them, Lyric, a little gem. Everybody in the family is so in love with him.

And I thank his dad, Terry, and Nyla’s guy, Phill, for loving and appreciating and enriching the lives of two extraordinary women who are among the most dear of the apples of my eye.

These men and I can sing to them, me to both of them, and they to whom it applies:

“Tawny Maya, you my girl, say now, you my girl, say now, you my girl.
Nyla Summer, you my girl, say now, you my girl, say now, you my girl.
Tawny and Nyla, prettiest in the world, say now, prettiest in the world,
say now, prettiest in the world…”

Love those girls of mine.

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Ernie McCray

I was raised in a loving and alive home, in a black neighborhood filled with colorful characters in Tucson, Arizona. Such an environment gave me a hint that life has to be grabbed by the tail as tight as a pimple on a mosquito's butt. With no BS and a whole lot of love. So, from those days to now I get up every morning set on making the world a better place. On my good foot*, and I hope my writing reflects that. *an old black expression

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