St Gabriel Windows

St Gabriel Windows
Photocopy c. 2013 Jamie Laubacher

Saturday, August 10, 2013

It’s Days like these…

…that I miss my father terribly.  Lately, between the weather, and appointments and just feeling somewhat down, I miss him more than ever.

Things I particularly think about him are,

how he’d come to the side door with something for me, especially coffee…or some fresh corn on the cob from a local farmer, when he’d come into town to get his business mail at the post office…..

When my first child was born he came every day literally for months….to see him just laying there in the bassinet and see if I needed anything….

he’d pop in to visit the kids for a minute and share a cup of coffee, and just sit and talk, watch CNN or the Weather Channel with me…

I rarely, if ever had to drive myself or the children to any doctor’s appointments….he took me to every one!   Yes, even as a grown woman, mother of children, he’d drive me to my appointments and wait in the waiting room for me.  The first time after he passed away that I had to drive to the endocrinologist on my own, I cried the entire way….not because I couldn’t do it, but WE had always done it together….

EPSON MFP image

He assisted me in looking at this house I live in….took me through each step of it to purchase it….I never imagined then, a single woman with a dog, that in years ahead I’d be a married woman raising four children in this same house…..and how many memories would be stored up here…

I worked for my father’s company and saw him daily for work hours for 17 years….before I had my third child and had to back off to just barely part time at home work.  Still, he found a way to keep me employed doing a lot of his clerical work…

Seriously, he would save you or your friends from anything …you could call him with car trouble, a problem, he’d hop in his Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer and find you …..you could always depend on him. 

He always defended me/us ….he never let anyone mistreat his children, he had a thing or two to say to them.  I think some school teachers might remember him to this day :)…and some parents of playground bullies…

He would call with the severe weather report…..or that we were going to hear the fire sirens go off because his police radio said there was a fire or accident…

dadbycar

I will never forget the day he called while we were schooling and he said….”I know you’re doing school…but turn on the TV…”….and it was 9-11…the Twin Towers….and I watched in horror as the second plane struck the building,  

My list could go on and on….because he was such an enormous part of our lives….and it was such a huge loss when he left us …even though we had a couple months to prepare for his death, and I’m grateful we had that, it didn’t lessen the blow….losing such a big part of your daily life is never easy.

So, as the summer months wind down, and it’s getting darker sooner…my mind recalls how he would scoop us all up and take us to buy school supplies, treat the kids to lunch and just make everything a fun and memorable thing.

POPPAWITHJENNIFER

I could really use an angel like my dad in my life again…..although I know he is a hard act to follow…..

Some people are just naturally givers without reservation….God truly blessed us with a very generous and giving father for the 70 years he was with us.  May he forever rest in peace as we await greeting him in eternity some day.

2 comments:

True Daughter of Mary said...

He sounds wonderful. I am so glad you had him. You were blessed, for sure!
My dad is still working at almost 70, but I would love for him to just pop in! We live too far for pop ins, though. No one pops in here.

Home School Mom: Denise said...

Thanks Megan, it just hits me sometimes suddenly...hey, Mike pops in now! LOL ;) We are too far for other family members to just do that too..way out of the way actually. But my parents, and us, we were the only ones in this area...it was so special of him to do that.