My Daddy

I am sad that I do not remember what it was like for my dad to live with us.  For me all I remember was our weekend visits. It was shortly after Heather was born that my mom and dad separated (so around age 3 for me)

My Dad was a truck driver.  We lived in Midland and he lived in Odessa.  My mom would either meet him at a truck stop or he would come get us from Midland.  We girls would always fight who got to sit in the front seat with him, we eventually took turns each weekend.  We had a routine.  On the weekends we spent with him each Friday we would go to Walmart.  My Dad had been gone from his house so he wouldnt have food.  So we would get food from the store.  Ever Friday we would eat the same meal.  He'd get a roasted chicken and french bread and we would watch X-files.  After watching our "show" we would stay up listening to our dad tell us stories that we all desperately tried to stay up to listen to, but would fall asleep to our dad's voice.  Now looking back sometimes I wonder if the stories were real or away to teach us life lessons.  One of the stories my daddy told us was that we were a pack of wolves and in the pack of wolves they stick together and how we all need to stick together.  Or he told me that I was the owl of the family.  That owls sit and observe and know all secrets and that I need to learn to keep others secrets.

Going to my dad's house on the weekends were such cherished memories and something we looked forward too.  I feel bad for my little sister because she doesnt remember any of those times.  We stopped getting to see our dad when we were around 8-9.  The reasoning behind that is a story I wont share.  But know that my dad and mom would have kept up the weekend visits.  We tried to go see our dad once a year on Thanksgiving if he wasnt out hauling pipe.  We would beg our mom to let us take a plate of our thanksgiving feast to him.  Sometimes not very often I am not even sure it was every year, my dad would call the house.  And he would talk to us girls like nothing had changed it was him giving us advise about things.  Sometimes it seemed like some how when he called it would be the right time when we needed to hear his voice or get the advise he gave.

The last memory of our dad was him taking us girls to dinner at the Olive Garden.  I think my dad was the owl on this visit.  He sat there and listen to all of our chatters.  I miss those nights where we would stay up just to listen to his stories.

The year my dad died.  I kept having dreams that we wouldnt know he had passed away and would find out in a newspaper.  One night I got a call from my Aunt.  I remember saying out loud something is wrong my aunt wouldnt call this late.  Thats when she told me she had been on the phone with my mom and that someone was beeping on her other line.  It had been my dad's sister.  My dad lived on his brothers property and he hadnt seen my dad in a few days and found him.  We dont know why or how he died.  Other then he looked to have been asleep.  By the time we found out that an autopsy wasnt going to be done by the city it was to late for us to have one done.  We thought it had been related to a fall.  My dad had been on workers comp due to a fall he had.  He was climbing his later up to his cab and slipped and hit his head.  He didnt have any life insurance and if we could have proved his death was from that fall, his work had life insurance but since the brain is the first to go all we would have gotten from an autopsy is "it could be but I cant say for certain" So it was up to his daughters and our mom to pull together funds for the funeral.  However his boss covered the funeral expenses for him  (one of the nicest things to have been blessed upon us girls)

My daddy.  One of the things I miss the most is sometimes to make us laugh.  He'd say rink a dink a doo and wiggling his finger to touch our noses.  

This is my daddy fast asleep while my twinky and I play right beside him.

I have to touch on my Husband's dad.  I met him but I didnt really know him.  He was one of my Sunday school teachers.  But he was the world to Ethan.  I have heard so many great stories and adventures he and Ethan had together.  From all the stories I have heard I wished I had had something close to that growing up.  He'd make something out of nothing. E misses the jokes and pranks he'd pull and his view on life and the world.  E says he misses his polish sandwiches and his nacho's. He misses working with him and going camping with him.  How he passed away is a story reserved just for E to tell. But one thing I can say is he hates the fact it was him that found him.  In a lot of ways it changed his whole life when his dad died.  The world lost someone amazing.  Below is a picture of E dad, his sister Kate and E wearing glasses like his dad. (already trying to be just like his daddy)