There are several different kinds of fathers. There are dads, fathers, and daddies. Mine happens to be a “daddy”. I remember growing up, he was strict with my brothers, but with my sister and me, he was just a big teddy bear. I only remember one time that he really got mad at my sister and me. We were playing outside at the neighbor’s house, and my mom had called us for dinner, but we were having too much fun and not paying attention. But when we heard my daddy’s voice yell for us, we knew we were in big trouble. We ran home right away, and when we got in the yard, we had to run by Daddy who had a tree branch (switch) in his hand, and how he hit both of our legs at the same time I will never know, but you better believe we never ignored our mom’s call for dinner again. Ha! Ha!
I have always thought that when something got broke, my daddy could fix it. With five kids, he never ran out of things to fix. He was always working on something, whether it was something from around the house to motorcycles, mowers, cars, etc. He has even rebuilt a pickup from just a shell. He is currently working on a scooter that they use in factories to drive around in. He has two lathes; one is a metal lathe, and one is a wood lathe. He can make nuts and bolts on one and turn a wooden chair leg on the other. He even helped me with my table and chairs and helped me make one of the chair rungs from a block of wood. I think I may have inherited my daddy’s sense of collecting and the knack of taking something and making something out of it. He always has a screw, nail, nut, bolt, or tool for whatever you may need.
I don’t ever remember my daddy ever being sick, but nine years ago, he had a heart attack, and they had to do some surgery to open the main artery and place a stint in. When he came out of surgery, he suffered a stroke which affected his speech and ability to talk. He has gone through extensive rehabilitation from physical and speech therapy. He has also helped at the University with other stroke victims along side his therapist as he understands them better than anyone else.
A year ago he was not feeling good, so he went to the heart specialist, and the specialist said that he needed to have open heart surgery to open up his veins that had collapsed. The doctor did seven bypasses and after the surgery told us that he may live another year. He tires very easily now, and most of the time you will find him on his couch sleeping. In the year since his surgery, he has only missed one of my son’s drama performances. I hope I live as full a life as he has lived. I love you Daddy and Happy Daddy’s Day!!!!
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