To My Children, A Word About Your Father

Dear Maria, Ben and Sam,

First of all, let me say, "You are welcome!"

Thanks to my fine choice you three have experienced the fatherly love of a good man.  All right, I admit, I didn't really think much about his fatherly potential when I chose him.  Nevertheless, I'm taking the credit.

You already know he was and is a fun person.  You  have to admit he was good at taking the time to play.  He was the one who would pretend to push you into the hot lava or shout out, "Kid Hunt!"  He also played a lot of Crazy 8, Candy Land and Old Maid.  He's a quirky guy with lots of character and I think that just adds to the adventure.

I hope you always knew of his love for you.  He made a lot of sacrifices on your behalf... all three of you.  He always put your needs before his own.  I think you know that, too, don't you?  He wasn't always confident that he knew how to parent but you always knew he would be there for you.  You knew he was steadfast and fiercely loyal to his family.  Even if you never really thought about all that, I'm sure it must have helped you feel more secure in a world that doesn't always feel safe.

Ben and Sam, in a world where boys aren't always shown how to be good fathers, you were given that valuable example.  Maria, because of him, you were able to recognize a good man for yourself and a good father for your own children.  For all of you, he's taught by example the value of integrity, generosity and perseverence.  He's also let you see his love for God, family, music, Montana, baseball and goofy dogs.  I don't know how all these things molds you, but I think those things, to you, will always be associated with your Dad.

So, again, I say, "You're welcome." Above any gift I ever bought or made for any of you, providing you with this man for your father was a stroke of genius and I know you are thankful.

Love,
Mom

Medals and Memories

Yesterday was not our typical day.  Mike and I ventured out of town to visit one of his sisters, Karen, and her husband, Greg.  They'd moved into a new home awhile ago and we finally got ourselves in gear enough to go see it.  We enjoyed visiting with them!

Karen entertained us showing family treasures.  I'll start right out by saying the most fun for me was seeing Carol's (my mother-in-law) old swimsuit, complete with ruffles on the hinder.  Yes, I said hinder.  Karen also had Carol's old square dance dress.  I had a hard time envisioning Carol square dancing but I'm not sure why that is.  She's tried a lot of things over the years and still takes classes on new things.  Carol is a very elegant lady and I suppose that is why these old items were fun to me.  I got a glimpse of her in another era.

Karen also had a lot of their Dad's military things.  George died way too early.  He died when we'd been married only 1 month.  Of course Mike has lots of memories of his Dad but they never got too far into knowing each other as adults.  It was precious to see Mike going through these things of his Dad's.  I think it made him feel a bit closer to him. 

Our son-in-law, Eric, is a curator at a veteran's museum.  He and Mike are going to go through some of George's military things together.  There are medals and other things that we know mean something.  Eric's head is full of knowledge of such things and he also knows how to do the research to find out more.  Mike is excited to show them to Eric.

Mike knows some of the stories.  I see the pride in his eyes when he talks about his Dad being involved in freeing prisoners from concentration camps.  If George never did another thing in his life, that in itself would've earned him hero status as far as I'm concerned!

It is rather a week of remembering veterans around here.  Eric has been working hard to prepare for the opening of a Vietnam War Veterans display at the museum.  Tomorrow is the big day!  We plan to go to help honor some of those who were treated with contempt when they returned from war.  They were given a job to do and they did it.  We need to thank them.  We're proud of Eric for all his hard work.