Skip to main content

My Dad

There is no anniversary, birthday or any other reminder, I just miss my Dad.  My Dad.  I could write for days about my Dad.  He was the very first man I fell in love with.  He was handsome, he was kind and he worked harder than most.  

When I was little, 3 to 5, he would put me in the car and we would travel!  To the Post Office, Bank and THEN somewhere for food.  He would hold my little hand and introduce me as his girlfriend.  Out of everything I remember about my Dad, it is his hands.  How he held mine, how he typed, how he held a cup, and how he danced holding my Mom's hand.  I loved everything about this man.  Even when he got mad...I reflect with humor.  He NEVER swore.  If he slipped a swear word we all ran for cover.

He took me to my very first day to school.  I didn't go to Kindergarten.  I was told it was because I was too smart for that.  Later when I was torturing my siblings with my intelligence, I was told it was because I was still a baby...attached to my parents!!!  I love that now.  Well, he brought me to a First Grade.  Miss Craddy was my teacher...she was Dad's teacher once too...I think.  She was good to me because of Dad.

My job in my family was to entertain my Dad.  I made that man laugh.  He and I laughed more than anything.  He had this great sense of humor that was full of joy.  He was once a policeman and had more stories than anyone I knew.  In our house, dinner was important.  Food and family were hand in hand.  My Mom would make fantastic Sunday Dinners.  Always ending with stories and dessert.  My Dad would be sipping coffee and eating dessert and the stories were mesmerizing.  As we got older and brought boyfriends home, I would watch each one fall in love with my Dad.  We would break up  and then run into them later just to be asked how my parents were!  What?  Yep.  He was great.

When I married BJ, I watched a different relationship happen.  He took BJ under his wing.  He helped BJ make his Confirmation.  He stood for him.  I watched a friendship between the two that gave me such comfort.  BJ loved my Dad.  He loved the stories and he had plans.  We started building a house here on our farm for my parents.  My Dad was FINALLY going to live on a farm.  He was so excited to be in fresh air.  I remember him taking our children, a Beau and Maria, for a long walk to see the land.  All I ever wanted, was to take care of my parents.  As they got older and I realized how much they did for their kids, I just wanted them to have peace in their life.

My Mom started telling me that Dad was falling.  They were still in their house and we were building out here.  I ended up taking him to the hospital suspecting a stroke.  They sent him home because he was "strong" and just needed a walker because of a pulled muscle.  Two days later he was unable to talk or walk because now he was in full blown stroke.  He died July 26, 2006.  He died three weeks after the stroke of a massive heart attack.  The loss for me was more than anything I ever ever encountered and unless you know this loss, you can't comprehend.  To this day, I apologize to any of my friends that lost a Mom or Dad and I just didn't realize the pain.

So this blog...it can't do justice for my Dad.  He was a holy man.  I don't mean he didn't make mistakes or any of that.  He depended on a God.  He trusted in God.  He entrusted his life and the life of his children to God.  In the end, I walk into my Church and can picture my Dad sitting there with his hands folded on his lap anticipating what was going to happen in the Mass.  He loved life.  He loved my Mother more than life.  He loved all his children more than we knew.  I just, miss my a Dad.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cookie Cutter Parenting

When I first became a parent I was looking to be exactly like other Catholic parents, whatever that was.  I immunized Beau and Maria.  I put them in pre-school because they would never get into Harvard if I didn't.  I bought the "Happy Meals" because that was what all the other moms did.  I dressed them like all the other kids.  We celebrated Santa and then God.  Why oh why was I so unhappy?  I had everything I wanted, so I thought. One day I turned and saw a disaster following me.  A Catholic School run by feminists of the worst kind.  Caring more about academics and fundraising than the souls of these little people.  We were raising them to put God on the back burner.   God knew exactly what to do.  I became pregnant with Ireland.  I had secondary infertility.  I was very busy when I became pregnant.  I was working part-time for the Catholic Pre-School, working part-time as a Waitress at a place that had Country Music Shows.  I was also helping my brother start
Post a Comment
Read more

Good Morning Americans

This morning I turned on GMA.  GMA standing for Good Morning America!  Really?  The news they put out is anything but good.  Today the ticker at the bottom of the screen read that milk was going up $.60.   Here .  BUT this is what was supposed to happen.   Here.   Coffee prices are going up.   Here.   The best is fuel!  Gas prices escalate.   Here. Let's talk about jobs...  Here is what the government says.   Here.   The reality is " In a phone call,  Harvard Business School  Entrepreneurship and Strategy Professor Joe Fuller called the numbers “more of the same.” While he felt the headline jobs number was “a disappointment even in the context of a decaying picture for jobs growth,” Fuller warns that”trying to read a lot into month to month data is a fools errand. There is, however, something in these numbers that’s unsettling. Even though we talk about the period from July to November being good relative to the recent past, it still wasn’t the type of job growth numbers we
Post a Comment
Read more

Don't Judge a Special Needs Family

Have you ever been misunderstood? Have you ever tried to do the right thing and have a whole bunch of wicked come hurling at you? What did you do? Did you start to endlessly explain your motives so it could be twisted by the few people that dislike you? Or did you stay silent? Staying silent is not my strong point, thus the blog.;) When I became pregnant with Looly (Kate), I noticed some big changes within myself. I had to fight to keep her alive because of a difficult pregnancy. Then at the end of my pregnancy I had to fight to keep us both alive. Then we were told Looly had Down Syndrome. At that time, we were grateful to God that she was alive and later we were thanking God that her heart was healthy and there was no neurological damage. She just has Down Syndrome. Just Down Syndrome. Say those words...just Down Syndrome. That is what I do, I simplify difficult things, then reflect and think I'm crazy. I was connected to this child at conception. I begged God to let me car
Post a Comment
Read more