Their beginnings were as vastly different as their individual courses in life would prove to be. It was not the years in age that separated them but rather their own unique and individual personalities. Yet they were bound together with a profound sense of family and love. At the center of it all was a man of many experiences, many trials, and a dream.

The dream was realized through perseverance, hard work and love. It held a lasting space in their hearts and the hearts of those who so often spent time and were allowed to receive the rewards of that dream.

The week’s labors were completed, and as had been the custom, they spent time in and around the house with their families. Today it included friends and neighbors sharing in the Ponderosa’s hospitality once again.

Adam, Hoss and Joe were no longer the children of yesterday. They were the men of today. They laughed as they reflected on their younger years – years they’d spent sowing their oats, becoming their own person under the watchful eye of their father and each without the faintest thought of a wife and children during those years. Life did change things. Each now was married with children in tow. Joe’s wife was expecting their second child.

The grandchildren of Ben Cartwright were a sight to behold when they were all together. Ben would try to keep up with them but found their energy was greater than his. He marveled at the innocence and honesty that only a child could show and was excited that these were his grandchildren. He thought of Adam as the son that provided a sense of logic, reason, fairness and commitment in all he undertook. A man that loved in a quiet manner and rarely said the words but showed the true meaning of them. When Adam married, it was a day that Ben shed tears. He now had three children and all of them were daughters. Ben had thought it somewhat ironic.

Joe was the second of his sons to get married. Ben always enjoyed the free spirit that lived in Joseph. He admired his zest for life and childlike kidding. He was always the life of these gatherings and had grown to be a loving and caring husband and father. Joe surprised everyone by finding the woman that he truly knew he wanted to spend his life with after having dated most of the single women within a fifty mile radius. He was now the father of a son with another child on the way. Joe was teased by his siblings about being a father and reminded by them that apples don’t fall far from the tree.

Their friends and neighbors were enjoying each other’s company as the wives ensured that all were comfortable and had whatever they desired. From a corner of the great room there was laughter coming from Roy Coffee and a group of men. Hoss crossed the room and was heading toward his father’s red leather chair. It was a chair from which wisdom was dispensed and justice levied.

Hoss was the last to be married and Ben once again had reflected. He was always able to reach into the recesses of his heart and mind as related to the sons … that made him a rich man … a richness that could not be measured by the land holdings or financial rewards. He knew the gentleness of his son and the compassionate heart that he’d yet found anyone to match. Hoss was a great father as shown by his love toward his wife and his son and daughter

Joy and family were his rewards. Ben often gave quiet thanks. His dream had been real but included things he could never have imagined. He was a blessed man and knew it.

The time they decided on had come. The brothers breathed deeply as they departed the Ponderosa. Quietly they made their way through the tall pines they’d come to know and love. The very pines they’d spent time among earlier in the day. As they approached the freshly disturbed soil, they wrapped their arms around each other. The last steps were the hardest. They stoically braced themselves once again to remember the man who would no longer sit in the red leather chair, raise his glass to his sons and friends, play hid ‘n’ seek with the grandchildren or be a safe haven.

They felt emptiness and each in his own way quietly remembered the man – their father. They had agreed that they would return alone this day to say a final farewell. Each in his way could only see the grave that lie before them and fill with emotion. Tears and heartache beyond understanding gripped them. They embraced each other and allowed themselves to be free of the self-imposed restraints. They cried openly as they held one another understanding that the man that gave them so much would not walk with them as they continued their journey … for the man that lay before them had come full circle – the “alpha and the omega.”

Wiping his eyes, Adam read the headstone in a steady and loving voice, “Benjamin Cartwright, Loving husband, father and grandfather, 1809 – 1880.”  Placing his finger on the dash that separated the years on the headstone he said, “This is what’s important. It’s not the year born or the year one dies – but the time between represented by the dash. The way a man lives his life. I can only pray when it is my time that the dash will mean as much as this one does to us.”

As they turned to head back to the ranch the sun came from behind a cloud. It shown with a brightness that was beginning to warm their hearts and spirits. Life would continue. Looking up at the sun Hoss stopped and said, “Pa’s passing kinda makes a man stop and think. That dash is important Adam – even if a man only briefly finds a space in the sun.”

The End.