My dad has suffered a second stroke and is almost totally
debilitated. He is constantly on my mind these days, even when I’m not with
him. So many memories come flooding back―all the wonderful ways he has touched
my life. So I decided to make a list, very stream of consciousness, in no way complete, or in any kind of
order.
My tribute to my dad today.
Thank you Dad for:
Ice cream after Sunday night service
Paying for umpteen piano lessons
Attending every game I cheered at in high school
Letting me cry on your knee after a heartbreak
Changing my oil and checking my tires
Providing a college education
Calling every evening at 9:00 right up until the night you
had the stroke
Following me home one cold Christmas eve
Staying up until the wee hours waiting for my son to be
born, driving an hour home, and driving back again a few hours later to see him
Being there to help take that baby home a day later
Letting us borrow your van for our 7,000-mile adventure
Remembering I was born on a Sunday morning
Crying when I sang
Buying my books
The look in your eyes when I read the dedication of Home to Currahee to you
Running for county commissioner at age 72 and winning
Encouraging me to keep learning by reading physics books in
your spare time
Sharing your stories
Passing on your love for birds
Inspiring me with real change when you took that Dale
Carnegie course
Teaching Sunday school for a hundred years
Putting salt on your watermelon
Hugs in the driveway when you got home from work
Being a constant when things were scary
Dusting playground dirt from my socks when I arrived at your
office
Giving me dimes to go to Harper’s Five and Ten after school
Picking us up from the airport
Checking on me during those eighteen hour solo road trips from Dallas
Teaching us the value of education because of your GI bill experience and that “You can’t get too much school housing.”
Passing that on to my children
Being at my children’s high school graduations
Sharing all those weeks on St. Simons Island
Being so stubborn
Crying in relief when I told you there was no cancer in my
lymph nodes
Being with me through trials of many kinds
Being proud of your grandchildren
Teaching me the value of hard work and persistence
Giving me Currahee
Telling me about your dog Sandy who jumped up to see rabbits
Helping my cocker spaniel give birth to her puppies
Letting us keep George and Georgette, those Easter ducks, in
the backyard
Teaching me how to drive my straight shift Mustang, even
though the experience made you never want to teach anyone else
And especially for being my dad
“I thank my God every time I remember you”
(Philippians 1:3).