This is a day set aside to honor the fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers and great-great grandfathers.
This coming Sunday is Father’s Day.
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 will turn 7 in a little over two months.
I also enjoy watching my son-in Terry when I am around him and Liam and how Liam is always asking his dad about this and that. It’s pretty cute.
As I reflect back on my dad and one of my grandfathers, I’m reminded of the influence they had and the role each played in my life.
Dad’s been dead for nearly 37 years and my grandfather Doc passed away almost 51 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 credit him for setting me on a career that I’ve enjoyed since its beginning when I still was in high school.
Before starting my junior year, he suggested I take a course called journalism. Having not a clue what that was, he explained it had a lot to do with writing for newspapers.
Even though I retired more than 10 \\½ years ago from full time work after spending 47 years at the same daily newspaper, I’m still doing what I enjoy and that’s writing for a weekly newspaper.
When dad passed away, I was only 40 years old. How I wish I’d had more time with him. There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about him and miss him.
I like to think of the good times we experienced as a family. I also remember those times just the two of us spent together.
He always wanted only the best for me and our family.
When I was a kid growing up, I enjoyed our running the bird dogs and then all the hunting we did together and with others.
He wasn’t short on handing out advice and I probably should have listened more than I did.
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.
Little things like fishing, playing catch with him, just sitting and watching TV as we talked were all part of what I really enjoyed.
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.