Saturday, June 16, 2012

Remembering our Fathers this Weekend!

                                                          My Dad with Owen 8/2012

My father is 75 yrs. old and not in the greatest health right now.  I live in NC and he lives in northwestern NJ.  I won't be visiting with my father in person this weekend, but I will call him and chat for a little while on the phone.  While getting ready to type this post I was thinking of all the things I could say about my Dad.  Here are a few things that come to mind:

Hard working
Loves the Outdoors
Honest
Extremely creative
Stubborn

The last one may seem a little harsh, but my Dad is of German-Dutch background and he can be very stubborn.

My Dad is a retired residential home builder.  He retired about 7 yrs. ago due to his health, he has Lupus.  Dad still builds things in his woodworking shop and never uses plans!  He has all his knowledge stored in his head.  Just amazing!!

Dad loves to garden and even though he isn't feeling very well right now, he is still gardening every day.  The other day I called to see how everything was and my Mom told me Dad was in a lot of pain (in his back) but he was sitting in his favorite comfy chair shelling peas from his garden!  He couldn't bend over when he needed to plant some seeds so he decided he would get some copper piping which was waist height and put the seed down the pipe and tamp the earth with his foot, that is how my Dad is!

I was thinking back to my earliest memories of being with my Dad and it brought to mind the time he took me to the cement block yard with him in his dump truck to pick up cement blocks for the house he would be starting.  He got out of the truck to give the driver the slip for the block and he left me in the truck.  The truck had an oval back window which I could look out and see my Dad talking to the worker.  Something happened and the boom that was carrying the cement block slipped and the blocks crashed into the window and almost broke it.  My Dad ran over to the truck all upset thinking I might have been hurt.  I told him I was all right and he said to me, "we don't really need to tell you Mom about this, because she won't let you come with me anymore and that wouldn't be good".

My Dad is not a fancy man, he doesn't like his picture taken (but lately he has been letting people take it), he loves things from the "olden" days as he calls them, he doesn't like eating chicken of any kind, doesn't have and never will as he says have a computer, likes to read and likes to create.

Well that is about all I have to say about my Dad right now other than LOVE YOU DAD!!  HAPPY FATHER"S DAY!!

5 comments:

  1. Sherri, what a wonderful tribute to your dad. I loved the story about "don't tell your mom". Made me laugh because I can imagine my own dad saying the same thing in that instance :-) Sending good wishes to your dad.

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  2. What a precious picture of your Dad, Sherri. I'm not thrilled with having my picture taken, either, but they are true treasures as we can't go back in time.:) Thanks for sharing this with us. He sounds like a wonderful man. Good for him for being stubborn- sometimes you have to be!:) Lori

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  3. Love the post Sherri....and love the part about "let's not tell your mother about this!" funny....bet those words have come out of many father's mouths :) Wishing your dad & all of the father's out there a wonderful Father's Day!!

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  4. What a nice post about your Dad, Sherri. I am sorry he has lupus-that is an awful thing to deal with.

    It is funny that he said not to tell your Mom. I hope he has a wonderful Father's Day- xo Diana

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  5. Wonderful post Sherri! Our dads sound a lot alike. I can certainly understand making every minute count. As you know my dad isn't well right now either and I'm lucky in that I can see him every day and I'm definitely taking advantage of that. I hope he had a wonderful Father's Day.

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