In many families there is one parent who sticks out in a child's mind. For me, it was my father. Since Fathers day is coming up I thought I would write a loving “in memoriam” tribute to my father. Dad, this is for you.
Life is precious. That's what my father used to always tell me. Live each day as full and as heartfelt as possible
as there may be no tomorrow.
Growing up in a depressed urban area wasn't always
easy for my dad as he struggled each day just to make enough money to put food on the table. Yet each night after dinner he would always have enough time to throw the ball around with me or play one of my favorite games.
Every Sunday after helping my mother with the breakfast dishes he would say, son, lets get our fishing poles and go catch us some dinner. So, off we went without a care in the world.
One Sunday while fishing I noticed that he didn't seem to be as talkative as usual. I asked him, dad, are you feeling OK? He just looked at me and smiled and said yup, he was just a little tired that's all.
We were only out for about a half hour when it happened. He cast his line into the water, dropped his pole and slowly slumped down on to the pier. I was terrified. Dad, dad I kept shouting, are you alright? By this time a crowd of people were gathered all around us. Call an ambulance someone shouted. Is anyone here a Dr. someone else yelled out. Luckily, someone knew how to give CPR and started it right away. It seemed like an eternity but finally the ambulance arrived.
He never regained consciousness. I was ten years old when my father died. Even though I'm in my fifties now I still remember that day as vividly as if it was yesterday.
Every Fathers day I go out to that pier as I used to every Sunday, and I have a little chat with him. I tell him how much it meant to me to have a dad that cared enough about me to spend his precious time off doing things with me. I tell him how much I truly miss him and how much I still really love him.
I tell him all about his four wonderful grandchildren and how he is still very much alive through my stories about his loving personality and selfless nature.
Most important of all though, I tell him how he has made me a better man and a better father because of his motto of living each day to the fullest and as heartfelt as possible.
I try to live my life by that motto each day because life is short, and it's most certainly precious.
