My mentor, my guide, my friend...

 

 

 

"He was always there. If I needed his help, he was there. However, he wanted me to figure it out first..."

Many times I would go over to see my folks on a Friday when I worked close to where they lived. I would walk into the kitchen and greet my Mother, who was hard at work making bean with bacon soup and sandwiches for lunch. After some conversation with her, I would step around the corner into the living room. There he was, sitting in his favorite chair with a book in his lap. Dad would look up and say, "Hey Lar, come over here. I need to show you something." My Dad would have found some interesting story or fact and then researched it. I would then receive a ten to fifteen minute crash course of whatever the topic was he discovered.

That is the way my Dad was. Always interested and always interesting. A life long learner, he stopped learning when he stopped breathing at age 90. He loved learning, and he loved sharing what he learned. There were often quizzes at the dinner table, and after a while, I even grew to like them. It is a tradition I carried on once I had my own kids - however, they never did like the "bait and switch" I would throw in with many of my questions.

Of all the things I learned from my Dad, my best lesson was learning how he related to people. He genuinely liked people, and most people liked Dad. It did not matter if Dad was at work dealing with salesmen, at the YMCA doing volunteer work, or just with friends and neighbors. Dad could carry on a conversation with just about anyone. He always had questions, and he was always interested in what other people had to say.

Dad also taught me how to be a gentleman, how to treat a lady. He never gave me a book, nor a lecture. He taught by example. I saw how kind and gentle he was with my Mother. I saw how he treated the elderly women in the family. I saw how he treated my sister. After I got married and had two daughters, I saw how lovingly he treated the women in my family. I could almost hesitate to use the word "chivalry", but my Dad really had it. He was kind to everyone, and a real gentleman to all women he met or knew, inside his life or out.

I miss my Dad. I miss him more now than ever. I miss calling him up and just chatting. I miss calling him up and asking for his opinion, for his counsel. I miss sharing things with him. I miss telling him stories about our various pets - oh, how he loved them all. Most of all, I just miss you Dad. Always there, and always my mentor, always my guide, always my friend. Happy Father's Day Dad - and thanks...