Tribute to Dad

We are here to celebrate the life of my father. It is never easy to capture an entire life in the snapshots of a few moments in time. I don't know much about dad's early life because he rarely talked about his early life. A few comments here and there but not many. Like the time his mother took his comic books away, banned them from the house because he and his brother had dish towels wrapped around their necks shouting Shazam while jumping off the couch! As another example, imagine my shock to find out that our new neighbors in Arizona were my dad's very good friends from high school. I didn't know my dad had any good friends in high school other than Dale. My dad was also the only one that I know who went to Bob Jones because his parents DIDN'T want him to go there. It was a distance thing. Most people don't know that my dad worked his way through college in the bakery at BJ. I asked him once if he could make some of the biscuits but as all his recipes called for pounds and pounds of flour, quarts of milk, and gallons of lard they weren't very practical for a family of 4. My dad was a man of many talents and passions. He loved being outdoors-hunting, fishing, camping, canoeing. Maine as far as he was concerned was God's country and the family camp in northern Maine was a favorite place. He never did shoot a deer but one year he did shoot the top off of a balsam fir for our Christmas tree. He thought for once he had avoided his usual Charlie Brown tree but alas this one was just as Charlie Brown as all the others. He and the guys used to take people out snipe hunting and sometimes they would go on overnight canoe/fishing trips. Photography was another passion. As a child I remember him taking pictures of my brother and I for the family Christmas card and then developing them in the kitchen sink in the glow of red electric Christmas candle lights. I was his model for his portrait photography class and had to pose for a few hours while he fiddled with lights, f stops and the like. When I went on an MIS trip to China, he bought me a brand new very nice 35mm camera. He felt it was the trip of a lifetime and I should have a decent camera for the occasion. It was a trip that he would have loved to go on himself but was never able to do so. I have to note that he took massive quantities of slides and was never without his camera on any trip or family occasion except for one. Believe it or not he had to run out and buy a camera on my wedding day because he had forgotten his at home. He also like woodworking although he pretty much cut off a couple of finger tips one day. Rather than call my mom to tell her about the injury he wrapped his hand up and walked home-about a quarter mile or so. He was rather matter of fact about the whole thing. The one thing he was handicapped by for a bit of time was his left handedness. My mom would tell him to turn right and he'd turn left every time. It was so bad that when my brother was very young he yelled from the back seat-"Dad it's the shoe with the "r" on it." My mom and dad lead me to the Lord at a young age. They encouraged my dreams and my activities. They told me there was nothing beyond my abilities. My dad was certainly the patriarch of the family but he was never above changing diapers, cleaning toilets, doing laundry or cooking a meal. Quite a role model of what to look for in a husband. While I certainly didn't appreciate it at the time, his sea of red ink on all my papers in high school made college English a snap. My parents both gave me a love of reading but my dad introduced me to some of the greats of Science Fiction, a genre I love to this day. I remember watching him comfort my mother through a mostly closed door as her father was dying, holding her close, just being there for her. I remember the tears in his eyes on my wedding day as he walked me down the aisle. The look of joy on his face when he was introduced to his grandson Trevor after driving 1900 miles with a giant Mickey Mouse riding shotgun. When I was a very little girl I would bounce up and down on his chest giggling all the while. It must be something in the genes because we have many pictures of his grandkids wrestling with Papa. He loved every minute of it. He thought his grandkids were the best in the world. Finally I have experienced many emotions since his passing. I am sad and I mourn but it is a selfish sadness and mourning. I am sad for the times that we will not share on this earth from now on. I mourn that he is gone from my life and from the family circle. It is selfish because he is certainly in a better place and is healed from his many illnesses. He is in the Presence of his Savior and God, reunited with those who have gone before and for that I envy him. I have peace because I know where he is at this time. I am filled with happiness when I remember the good times that we had as a family. I am filled with joy when I reflect on the future whether I die before Christ comes or am alive at that time, one day I will be reunited with him. (And I should probably note that he would have said that there were too many words in this-he believed in being succinct and not wordy)