JUST A LITTLE DADDY STORY

I spoke at my daddy's funeral....I am posting my words here so that I do not lose them.

This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  I have done hard things before but this is the first time that I have had to do them without him. I am not really ready for past tenses so please bare with me. Today we are here because of my hero….my cheerleader….my biggest fan. 

 I look out at all of you and see everything that my daddy loved passionately.  I see all of my family. We got a good one didn’t we?    I see his family in gray…his beloved highway patrol.   I see his fellow volunteer firefighters…you never let go of him, even when he was sick you would not let him quit.  I see his Church, the Housing Authority, Tclose, his coffee shop buddies.  The only thing I do not see here that my daddy loved.....absolutely lllooooovvveeeeddd....... was his cherry red three wheeled scooter. 

When my daddy was so sick and in the hospital, we talked about a lot of things.  I hated that time but it was also a gift.  we talked and talked and talked.  One thing he kept telling me is that he wanted me to write more stories.  So, I am wrote down one of my daddy stories and am going to share it with you today. 

My daddy should have never been allowed into the DPS.  When he applied, they had a height and weight requirement and my daddy was just too skinny.  The DPS told him to come back when he had gained some weight.  I can remember my daddy tell me that he grew to hate the sight of our car pulling into the parking lot, yet again, and my mom handing him a big thick homemade milkshake laced with eggs.  Over and over and over again  just so that my daddy could gain weight to get his dream of being a  member of the department of public safety.    The way my daddy tells it, the doctor finally got tired of him coming in and weighing so he lied about the last 5 pounds and he got into the academy.  Off he went to Austin to the Academy and off I went to kindergarten.  My daddy passed the academy and proudly became a trooper.  Me?  Well I had lost my best friend to Austin Texas so I spent my days crying at kindergarten and refusing to learn how to tie the shoelaces on a big wooden shoe. I cried from the moment my mother dropped me off until she picked me back up again.  At the end of 30 days, they asked my mother to please not bring me back.  My daddy became a Trooper.  I became a kindergarten drop out.  They must have been so proud.  Despite my rocky educational beginning, my daddy believed in me.  Thank goodness he believed in me.  In am who I am today because of him. 

He raised my brother and I.  He is our daddy.  He helped to raise my children.  He is their Dad.  He has even helped to raise children that do not even belong to us.  He is also their Dad…because there has always been enough of him to go around.

I love you daddy.