My Dad

Yesterday would have been my dad’s 66th birthday. It’s still so strange to think that he’s been gone for five years now and that it’s been seven since his accident. In some ways it seems like it was a lifetime ago. In others it seems like just yesterday.

I was definitely a daddy’s girl when I was little and I definitely had him wrapped around my little finger. I was fortunate to get to spend a lot of time with my dad when I was little. He and his twin brother owned an International Harvester dealership when we lived in Anthony and my dad would occasionally take us to work with him (never both at the same time though – which was smart on his part). He also used to take us on service calls with him when we weren’t in school. I think I spent more time playing on farm equipment than on playground equipment growing up.

My dad had a great sense of humor and very ornery (yes, for those of you that know that side of me, that’s where I got it). He also was a great story teller. I guess that explains a lot too. I loved for my dad to tell us stories about when he was growing up. He was also a funeral director and that definitely gave him some good story telling material. He was also had a great voice. He & his twin brother actually decided into the funeral business (yes, they did everything together) after singing at a funeral. My sister probably inherited his vocal talent because my brother and I didn’t.

Even though I was really close to my dad when I was little, our relationship was really strained during my teen and early adult years. Some of that was due health problems that affected his personality, some of it was due to the fact that he had this need to be depended on and unfortunately he had a very independent daughter, and some was due to the fact we both pretty stubborn. It really bothered him that I could take care of myself. He wanted his little girl to find someone to take car of her and get married. Oh, heavens, he’d be a total wreck now if he knew his little girl STILL wasn’t married.

Although he drove us NUTS the last 13 years of his life, I also know that it was because he loved us – sometimes too much. And despite it all, I miss my dad. There are all of these little things you take for granted, like how he would always gas my car up for me before I headed home, how he’s scrape my windshield and warm up my car for me in the morning during the winter. How anytime I had something that needed repaired, he’d make a day trip just to help me out. Even how he’d go to the store late at night when I was little because I needed cookies to help me sleep. ;o) And you all wonder why my expectations in my men are so high.