Song of the day: Thank You for Being a Friend - Andrew Gold

"Thank you for being a friend
Traveled down a road and back again
Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant" - Andrew Gold

Let me tell you about my Dad... He is a quiet, reserved man with a wicked sense of humor. While the three of us kids were growing up, he made life absolutely wonderful! He would call us all together at the kitchen table every fall for a family meeting, pull out a map of the United States and ask us where we wanted to go for the upcoming summer. Every one had input. One year, we took six weeks off and drove our motor home all over the contiguous United States. The five of us, an aunt and a dog; stopping at every tourist trap and for everything else in between; as we drove from coast to coast. We will never forget it. It was the trip of a lifetime! We went to Disneyland that summer and back to Disney World that fall. A bunch of "travelling fools"...that's what we were.(smile)

He would give us money behind my mother's back to go to the local "It's-A-Burger", to purchase one of those huge burgers with "the works". We would cut it up into three's and scarf it down before Mom returned home. There was one stipulation: We had to pretend to be hungry when dinner was served and eat EVERYTHING on the plate. It was our little secret. Mom did not find out about it until years later.

At one time our family ran into financial difficulties and, in order to supplement our income, my father had to drive a meat delivery truck for a summer. Since we were out on summer vacation, my sister and I rode along with him on deliveries. We met lots of people along the way, ate lots of free burgers and drank lots of free sodas. We never knew that we were in dire straits. We only knew that we were having fun. Daddy made our lives seamlessly smooth.

"I'm not ashamed to say
I hope it always will stay this way
My hat is off, won't you stand up and take a bow"

When I became pregnant, at age 41 with my son, I was very upset and wondered why, at that particular point in my life did I have to have a baby. I soon found out. When "The Boy" was about 9 months old, my father was diagnosed with cancer, an extremely aggressive form; hospitalized and given a relatively short period of time to live (2 years). Each day, during his hospital stay, I would roll "The Boy" down the corrider in his stroller, park it by Dad's bedside, pick him up and let him slobber his Papa with big, wet kisses. Dad and "The Boy" both loved this. I believe this to be the very beginning of "The Boy"'s claiming his original purpose for being here and I believe, even up to this day, that it was he, who helped my Dad maintain the will to live. That was almost nine years ago.

There are so many things that my Dad has done for us, that I am unable to even begin to relate. The annual trips to Disney World; staying each night until the park was closed, the yearly visits to the State Fair; paying for college for each of us...none of us had to pay back a student loan...Just EVERYTHING! And now, there are the Friday afternoon visits, family dinners at my house and phone calls. We are coming full circle. None of us has gotten into any serious trouble, and as of this moment, none of us has ever even seen the inside of a jail. (This in itself is miraculous; considering what each of us has to contend with in our respective DNA and gene pools)...Again another story, for another day.

You did a good job Daddy.

From the three of us; your children:

"Thank you for being a friend"