The Scout Bandelo

Look very closely at those merit badges; they were all sewn all by RAH - not his mother, but by himself.

I had three sons; I sewed on every single merit badge!  And, grumbled the entire time I was doing it.  The pesky little buggers.  I always wished they had velcro for those badges!  My sons' bandelos were not neat and tidy like this - that's for sure!

But, look how neat and tidy these all are.  I'm so impressed.

Another thing that is impressive is that RAH did all the merit badge work himself.  He read the manual and learned what had to be done.  He was encouraged a little by Scout leaders, but he NEVER had any encouragement from his parents.

In other words:

HE LITERALLY DID IT ALL HIMSELF!

But, and here's the saddest part of all.  He earned all the badges he needed, but one final badge -
Citizenship in the Home.  His step father refused to sign him off on that one.

And, that breaks my heart.  RAH and his step father clashed from the beginning of his mother's marriage to him.  Who knows why?  What does it matter at this point?  But, HEH would not sign off on this last merit badge...was RAH a bad kid?  No!  Did he get in a lot of trouble?  NO....but he was a normal young teenage BOY.  And, therein lies the reason, I guess.  He was just a normal kid, who had a perfect older sister, so maybe HEH was judging him based on HER good behaviour.

But, RAH never missed a church meeting in about five years; he worked at several jobs, he paid for his own instrument, his car, practiced his music lessons, and he missed EAGLE by one merit badge that is no longer required.

I don't want to sound bitter because I forgave HEH several years ago for his mistreatment of my husband, but it does make me very sad.

Life - ah, what a challenge!
( And coincidentally LIFE (Scout jargon) is where RAH remains - HA HA!)