Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Twenty Years

Today is the twentieth anniversary of my father's death. I have thought of him many times today, actually the past few days.......twenty years seems like so long ago, seems like only yesterday.
He was one of the smartest people I knew, and he only had an eight grade education. He went to work in the coal mines when he was a child for twenty-five cents a day. He fell in love with my mother and welcomed she and her four children into his life.......then they had my sister, nine years later me, and then my younger brother, twenty months later.

He joined the air force when WWII broke out, he was a medic. His friends told me war changed him,just like it did all of them. He would never speak to me about the war, he buried it somewhere deep in the bottom of his heart.

He taught me to live by the Golden Rule. He taught me to work out my own salvation. He loved being outdoors, growing flowers and vegetables. He believed that there was purpose for everything on this earth, good or bad. He taught me compassion. He gave me a love for music.
He taught me to eat oysters on the half shell and to shoot pool. I have his blue eyes.
He played the guitar and sang the blues. He could live on peanut butter, so could I.
He made the world around him a little better, I am a better person because of him.

I miss him. His name was Jim......his friends called him Sharky.

4 comments:

  1. This is so beautiful, Jilda. It is wonderful you had such a great dad.

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  2. How lucky you were Jilda...my dad died when I was 17...he'd been ill since I was 12 and with so many operations and drugs all mixed with alcohol making him crazy, I'm sure I never knew who he really was.

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  3. What a great post Jilda. Sounds like he was a great man. Any man who takes in and loves children that aren't their own is a walking saint. My Dad's anniversary is coming in a few weeks so I'll save my comments about him for that day. Thanks for sharing this.

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  4. You are and were so lucky to have him. Unfortunately my relationship with my dad isn't close to yours, but I am fortunate to have a great amazing mother. God how much I miss her, 1300 km is far away!

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