I typed my desired destination into the online maps program: “Carroll Southlake High School Stadium,” and hit the Enter key. A message popped up: “No results.” Well, that was frustrating. I’d heard the stadium was new, but you’d think there’d be some information on how to get there. Other than driving around in circles, how could I locate it? So much for finding the perfect cheering spot.
A few weeks earlier, a dear friend and Zeta Tau Alpha sorority sister told me she was participating in a 3-day Avon Walk through the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It was about 200 miles from where I live, but not far from my mother’s house. My father had died a year and a half before, and Mom had been asking me to assist her with some final details. So I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to help Mom and bring my two-and-a-half-year-old son, Jacob, to support a worthwhile cause.
Jacob and I made encouraging posters, using his tennis shoes and paint to stamp tiny pink footprints. I checked the Avon Walk website for the best place to cheer. “The checkpoint at Carroll Southlake High School Stadium,” they recommended.
If only I could find it. Using my mother’s computer, I tried several different maps sites. Search after search came up empty. “We’ll just drive in that general area and we’ll probably see it,” I told my mother.
“Why don’t you look in your father’s Mapsco?” Mom suggested.
I laughed. Dad sold insurance for 35 years, and in his day, an up-to-date Mapsco Atlas was a necessity for his professional life, before GPS systems and online maps. “Mom, the newest Mapsco is two years old. It won’t have anything the internet doesn’t.”
“Just try it,” Mom urged.
“Fine,” I said. I opened up Dad’s latest Mapsco and turned the pages until I found Southlake. Right in the middle of an open area on the map with no roads, written in bright red marker, was a large X.
The next day, my mother, my son and I drove out to that X: Southlake Carroll High School Stadium, its correct name. The walkers smiled at our posters, and my friend was thrilled to see us.
I can’t figure out why Dad would write an X at that spot. It was mostly undeveloped farmland at the time of his death.
But if he didn’t write it… then who did?
