Last Sunday was Father’s Day, a day set aside to honor the fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers and great-great grandfathers.
It’s an honor and privilege to be the father of a beautiful young woman as our daughter Meghan is. Likewise, it’s also special to be the grandfather to our grandson Liam who is about to turn 6 in a little over two months.
My wife Pat and I spent Sunday together. She fixed me a nice breakfast after we had our morning coffee.
We just kind of took it easy. She did some of the things she normally does on weekends and I ran a few errands, but mainly we just hung out together.
We grilled steaks for dinner and later went and grabbed ice cream cones, capping off what I thought was a really nice Father’s Day.
One thing that seems to be different though with Father’s Day, and Pat and I have visited about it, is family tradition. The entire family getting together. That’s not like it used to be, but as Pat pointed, our family is not unique in that respect.
Up through the time dad died in 1988 and Pat lost her dad in 1992, we always visited them on Father’s Day, just as we did the mothers on Mother’s Day until they passed away.
I spent some time reflecting on that Sunday. I told Pat I have to accept it I guess, but I don’t and won’t understand it.
Come August, my dad will have been dead for 36 years and my grandfather Doc passed away almost 50 years ago.
I’ve been remembering the good times dad and I had together and how I also enjoyed being with my grandfather Doc so much. He’s the one who taught me how to fish, dad showed me how to shoot and hunt and of course so many other things.
For many years off and on dad coached my baseball teams.
I will always credit him for setting me on a career that I’ve enjoyed since its beginning when I still was in high school.
Starting my junior year, he suggested I take a course called journalism. He explained it had a lot to do with writing for newspapers.There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about him and miss him.
I’ve been doing this now for 57 years as I continue to report and write for a weekly paper which I really enjoy.
I like to think of the good times we experienced as a family. I also remember those times just he and I spent together.
He always wanted only the best for me and our family.
A man I was nearly as close to as my dad was Doc. I am the oldest of his 19 grandchildren and we were always close.
Part of that closeness was probably because after my biological mother passed away when I was 3½, I spent so much time with him and grandmother Lynch.
I always looked forward to staying with Doc and grandmother.
He was a person who was kind, gentle, had faced so many challenges in his life and wasn’t afraid to be emotional when the time called for it.
To Doc, his family was first and foremost. I am so grateful he was a part of my life for so many years.