A Tribute to My Father
My father is 82 years old and will be 83 in May. If I don't do this now, I may forget until it's too late. My father is not in the best of health. He has had one testicle removed, one eye removed, hernias, strokes and at least one heart attack. He is deaf in both ears.
My father was born in Oklahoma in 1924. He lived before and through the great depression. He was drafted into the US Army at the age of 19, assigned as a military policeman until he was transferred to infantry. He fought the Germans in Europe during World War II and spent the last three months of the war in a German POW camp.
I didn't see much of my father through 1973 because he was usually working either in another state or another country. It was hard feeding me and eight other siblings along with my mother. He was a water well drilling foreman since before I was born and that's what his job was when he retired. My family moved to join him in Hawaii in 1974 and lived there for almost four years. He signed the consent form for me to join the military at 17 instead of 18 because he knew I was mature enough to handle it.
I have only seen my father on few occasions since then because of where I was stationed, no where close by. When my own family finally settled in to a home 70 miles away from my parents, I still didn't have much time to visit until after I retired from the military. I didn't visit enough.
My father only hit me once, but didn't hurt me, when I was 15 years old. I deserved it. Neither of my parents were abusive, I'll make that clear, even with nine children to contend with.
I love my father. It's too bad he was already in his 80s when I told him.
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"It’s too bad he was already in his 80s when I told him."
Better late than never.
FYI: you wrote, "Neither of my parents was abusive." It is properly written as, "Neither of my parents were abusive."
It's good to respect an honor your father. Good job RT…DragonLady is right…better late than never!
correction…"respect AND honor"…see, we're all guilty of a little grammacide.
Dagnabit. I ran that through a grammar checker. See? M$ SUCKS.
No disrespect – I thought you were about to tell a joke…He has had one testicle removed, one eye removed, hernias, strokes and at least one heart attack. He is deaf in both ears.
… Thought you were going to say his name is Lucky.
"I love my father. It’s too bad he was already in his 80s when I told him" I bet he knew you did anyway.
http://goldcoaster.wordpress.com
The important thing is you told him. He already knew it, so you needed to tell him for you. Visit him whevever you can now.
My parents are gone so don't leave anything undone, or tell yourself I'll do it tomorrow. Tomorrow may never come. Great tribute to your father. Thanks for sharing it with the world.
goldcoaster, no offense taken. I've seen jokes that started out that way.
Comedy Plus, I'm in a different country now. Very difficult to come up with enough cash for a round-trip ticket.
I think I am going to ring my Dad
Read the article to Dad as he can't read small print. Said that is pretty good. Miss you guys. We love you.
Late to the party, but never too late to comment!!
I have sat with many of my friends and have talked about our fathers. There is no one relationship which can cause so much tension, resentment, happyness, sadness, joy, etc. and so on. I had a love-hate-love relationship with my dad – during his life, we had many long talks, but never shared a beer together. We hugged and kissed whenever we met or left each other. He told me once how proud he was of me.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about your dad!!