Fathers Day without Dad

  

          I’ve been trying to avoid this, but the march of time eventually brought me face-to-face with the fact that this year will the first Fathers Day since we lost my Dad last year. Many of my friends have already been through this and I know that it is simply my turn. That does not make this easier.

Dad in uniform

          My sister had some programs printed for Dad’s funeral. On the back of the program was a brief bio I wrote and the headline was probably the best thing about the bio. I wrote that Dad was, “A damn good man from Alabam and a helluvan engineer.” Dad was all of that.

          My sister and I know all of Dad's stories and he had a lot of them. Suffice is to say that, in addition to being a great story teller, Dad was a kind, loving and supportive father. Dad loved his family and he especially loved his grandchildren. I learned a lot from him, obviously, but the lesson I learned from him that was the most important was also one I learned from my mother: Family first.

          Let me sum my Dad up with one story. I suffered a leg injury many years ago. I was going to drive myself about a hundred miles to see my surgeon in order to get the stitches removed but Dad wouldn’t hear of it. He flew out from the Midwest specifically to drive me to that appointment. Then, to make the trip tax deductible, he went to some kind of a meeting with someone who distributed books to schools in our area. Dad was a teacher by then and he was on a text book committee at his school. His meeting with the guy at the book distribution center made his trip to drive me to my appointment deductible. A few decades later I started working for myself and every damn trip I’ve taken since has included a meeting with someone who could make the trip deductible. I learned from the best.

Dad loved cookies. Never seemed to gain weight, either.

          My Dad was smart, probably the most intelligent man I ever met, and he was very widely read. Dad was an engineer by training but he knew something about everything. He could converse with anyone about anything. He and I shared an interest in sports – I made a living out of that interest – but the non-family topic we talked about the most was military history. Dad lived through the Great Depression and served in the United States Army during WWII, so he lived through many of the topics I read about. We talked about the war’s European Theater many times. Dad was not a great fan of the British general Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery.

You know what? Neither am I.

Dad loved airplanes like I love sports. He was in the industry for many years and knew volumes about aircraft. All types of aircraft. Military, civilian, it didn’t matter. If it flew, Dad knew. I have watched the television show Air Disasters many times and several episodes have covered incidents Dad talked about. Too bad the show debuted when it did instead of earlier. The producers could have saved all of the time spent researching the crashes and just called Dad. If it flew and wrecked, Dad was on top of it.

Dad with most of his siblings.

We talked about politics a lot and we usually agreed. Some of Dad’s siblings were liberals and Dad was always happy to explain the error of their ways. Very happy to explain it.

I wish I’d been able to put a copy of my book in Dad’s hands before his health failed him. He was no longer reading near the end, but I’d like to have been able to give him a copy. There is family in that book and history. The words are mine, many of the photographs are mine and the book is about history. Dad would have liked that and I would have enjoyed hearing Dad tell someone, “My son wrote this book.”

I am going to miss calling my Dad on Fathers Day. Gonna miss calling him a lot. He was a great father and grandfather.

And he was a helluvan engineer.

Thanks for reading.