Wow, is my dad stylin’ in this photo or what??? The sad thing is, he still had that shirt when he passed away in 2005. Picture this shirt paired with black Wranglers from KMart. Hot stuff! I realize that I get my quirkiness from him. He laughed hysterically at his own jokes (so do I). He loooooved animals, and taught his poodle to take food from his mouth. I love animals too (if you read my blog you know my affinity to my cat), but I don’t feed him from my mouth. That’s where I draw the line.
My dad’s best quality, by far, was his generosity.
My mom taught people the Bible full-time as a volunteer. One of her Bible studies was a teenage girl who was homeless. She, her three siblings, and her mother lived in an Airstream trailer, moving it around from camp ground to camp ground. One time my dad had one of the teenage boys with him (he was always taking teen boys under his wing, especially those without fathers) at our house in Coulterville, which he was building. He loaded up some grocery bags with food and tried to give them to Jason. “No,” he said. “I can’t take that.” My dad thought for a moment, then said, “OK, how about this… I’ll teach you how to lay tile, you can help me lay the tile in this room, and I can pay you with this food.” Jason agreed and they got to work, and their family got to eat for a few days.
Whenever I tell someone about my father, I always tell this story. I feel that it epitomizes who he was.
Thank you Papa, for teaching me kindness and generosity. I miss you every day.
Love, Babe