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

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

Finding Peace with Kate

Today I realized something amazing has happened. I found peace. Every weekday morning Kate happily gets out of bed EXCITED to go to school. She loves it so much and so do we. When we walk into school in the morning she can barely contain herself, waiting for her teacher to come and take her to class. She smiles bigley! For the first time since I was pregnant with her I am not worried about her. We see her changing so much! She is calmer. She is more engaged. She is listening to directions and she is so loving. To not worry about Kate is so new and so peaceful. The teachers and all the workers are so kind and caring. We knew this school was a perfect fit. Trinity and I witnessed a very stressful event with a child in the parking lot, one morning. The school was so on top of it and expertly handled the incident professionally and lovingly. To work full-time with special needs children, you need a loving heart. That is all I see. I see parents that want so much for their ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Aborting Down Syndrome Babies

I read this article this morning. As I read the comments from parents that said they would abort their baby if they found out it was going to have Down Syndrome, it occurred to me what a different conversation there would be if they didn't know they were going to have a baby with Down Syndrome.  These people would learn that they were given a gift. The comment "I would have a very hard time dealing with a retarded child. Retardation is relative, it could be so negligible that the child is normal, or so severe that the child has nothing… All of the sharing things you want to do, the things you want to share with a child – that, to me, is the essence of being a father. There would be a big void that I would feel. I would feel grief, not having what I consider a normal family." Let's talk about this statement. If you had a "retarded" child, the first thing you would do, is stop using that word. You have a child that has Down Syndrome. This is not who t...
Post a Comment
Read more