80

Today is my dad's birthday.  He would have been 80.  He died on November 1, 2013 at the age of 79.  I have not blogged much since his death.  Life has been too busy.  I've felt guilty for not blogging about many significant events that have transpired, but as I stated when I started this blog, this blog is not about documenting my life (I have weekly journal entries which do that), but more about me being able to "yak" about things. 

I miss my dad daily.  His funeral program hangs on my fridge.  I can't bring myself to take it down.  His smiling face, just the way I remember him, greets me each time I retrieve the milk or an egg.  Sometimes on the way home from school, I drive by the cemetery.  His grave is conveniently located just east of the road that runs right through the middle of the cemetery, so I can drive by, view his headstone, and say "hi," without getting out of the car :).  I remember little things about my dad:  how his hands were so big.  (I still don't think I've met anyone with hands as big as his.)  His fingers were "thick,"  and I remember as a little girl playing with his hands during church; his hands that had been scrubbed clean from brick mortar, but still were stained dark gray in the callused creases of his fingers.  I remember the shape of his fingernails, and knowing that his hands were the biggest, strongest hands ever and would always take care of me.... and they did. Those hands fed me and changed my diapers.  (My dad was GREAT with babies and kids, and used to brag, "Diapers don't bother me.  I can change a diaper with one hand while eating chocolate pudding with the other.") Those hands gripped the steering wheel while he drove all around town in the middle of the night, checking up on me or following the bus home from late night away ball games.  (This was pre-cellphone days; the only way to check on me, was to go find me.) Those hands built the house that I grew up in and the house that I now live in. 

My dad didn't spend much time "visiting" with me.  When I called from college, he would check to make sure I was fine and then mom would spend the rest of the expensive, long-distance phone call  time visiting.  However, I ALWAYS knew that my dad loved me and was watching over me.  He now watches over me from heaven.  And I have never been so sure of anything as I am of that.  I know that just as he quietly checked on me and watched over me on earth, he continues to live and do the same from heaven.  So today I want to wish him a happy 80th.  I am so glad that he's my dad!


Dad's 37th birthday-June 8, 1971 (On Grandma Hardy's back porch):  Kay 4, Bryce 2.

Dad's 39th birthday-June 8, 1973: Kay 6, Bryce 4, Rex 2.  (Jill will be arriving in a month on July 7, 1973)  Note how Kay is trying to help blow out candles.....and we wonder where Analise gets it?? :) --You'll have to ask Analise about that one :)

Some of Dad's posterity at his grave-Memorial Day 2014

In honor of his birthday, I posted the talks from his funeral that I currently have on family search.  (Talks by Kay and Bryce and the eulogy by David.)

https://familysearch.org/tree/#view=ancestor&person=KWH3-5L6&spouse=KWH3-5LX&section=memories