Tag Archives: Carpe Diem

Thoughts of My Father

I often wonder: when I pass from this Earth, “How will I be remembered?”

Three years ago, in the early morning, on a Wednesday, my father passed, and it was very apparent how he was remembered. His funeral was literally standing room only and it lasted more than four hours. Person after person took the podium and extolled his virtues, each with an individual perspective of who my father was to them.

In my childhood, my father was someone who could only be described as “tough.” In our lives there was no room for back-talk or bad manners or even warmth. Music didn’t grace our home. Jokes and humor were dismissed as frivolous. Discipline was constant, and religion and educational studies were paramount.

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In the Beginning – Chapter 1.1

It was strangely warm and humid that winter day. The pretty, 20 year-old girl with brown hair and matching eyes looked as though she might burst from the life kicking inside her. She occupied herself with chores around the humble mobile home that was our abode in the tiny hamlet of Mineral Wells, Texas.

TimAndDadAnd she waited.

The date was January 15th 1982, and there was hope. Hope and optimism were ever present on that unusually warm winter day.

And we waited.

A warm meal, a night of television, and a warm blanket filled the time as we noticed a sudden shift in the temperature. This is a common phenomenon in Texas. It’s not unusual for the weather to turn on a dime. An undeniable maxim in Texas is that if the weather is balmy in winter, a glacial freeze is coming—and come it did. Continue reading

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Filed under Life or Something Like It, Marriage, Parenting