For everyone who is celebrating Father's Day with their Dad...enjoy every minute. If you can't be with him physically and get to make that phone call...cherish that opportunity.
For those of us who no longer have our Fathers on this earthly plane....this is a day when there is a flood of memories that bring both smiles and tears. This is a great picture of both my parents standing in their dining room...Dad wearing his signature bow tie.
The time that Marshall Field's had the "most beautiful prom dress in the world" ....and Dad said "order it in your size."
Teaching me how to drive and when parallel parking he said ..."Pretend there is a car and park behind it." (I did tap the bumper of the "pretend car" on my first test and flunked it...you do learn from experience !)
Buying my first car from Dad's poker Buddy....making my own payments over three summer paychecks until it was officially "mine." Oh that Buick LeSabre drove through the snow and served me well....sold it for the same price I bought it for years later.
Driving to college...six hours one way and we always stopped at the same restaurants and ordered the same meals...he especially loved "The Teepee" and their ribs in
Tomah, WI on the way to the University of Wisconsin River Falls which is my alma mater. (Some things are better remembered than revisited...times and owners change.)
Dinners with Dad while my Mom taught antiques classes once a week every fall semester for many years. Father Daughter time that was irreplaceable.
The walk down the aisle at our wedding...and hearing the minister say...."Who gives this woman in holy matrimony....."Her Mother and I " he said in a choking tone I can still hear.
Helping us build our house....he and David spending the summer staining woodwork bring there every morning at 7:00. One day he overslept and was hurrying to get to our house....my mother urging him to slow down and have breakfast, "They aren't going to fire you," she reminded him.
We always said that my Dad never met a Slot machine he didn't like...and we took him and Mom to Green Bay for overnight trips. Again...always stopping at the same restaurant on the way. When we did, David would always whisper to the waitress it was my Dad's birthday. (It never was on that day.) The whole staff would bring and sing to him and would never of course allow him to pay the check which was always the point of the "celebration" so we could treat to the meal."
The last 3.5 months of this life were in the hospital...and I can't go there in daily memories even now....no one wanted to live more than he did and no one wanted it to be as much as My mom, David and me....but that was not to be.
I miss you and Mom every day Dad....and on some level I know you believe that . We live our lives knowing that you would be proud of the adults we have become. You were more a parent to David than his own who were gone years before and that is a relationship he too will always cherish.
Happy Father's Day Everyone...Cherish the Memories...
Sally K. & David L. Hanson
Comments(17)