 Today, June 20th, is my parents' anniversary and in two days, it will be the one-year anniversary of my father's passing. Since this past Sunday was Father's Day, I have been reflecting on his impact on my life. When I was young, I took for granted the many ways that he shared his love--fixing broken toys, making pancakes every Monday breakfast on his day off as a pastor, taking us camping every summer, building bunkbeds, a sturdy swing set and an A-frame playhouse and more. Building things with his hands was a skill that he learned in college working on a carpenter crew. Throughout his life, building things and gardening was a kind of therapy, a break from the stresses and challenges that come with the role of a pastor. A more recent example of his care and dedication to finding a solution to a challenge came from figuring out how to get a family cedar chest from his home in Virginia to California where I live. As my parents aged and wanted to downsize, my dad took photos of things that they were ready to part with and sent them to my sisters and I. We could request items that we would like to have and the rest, they would share with others or sell. I mostly chose small items because of the distance between us but I really wanted the cedar chest. It was built by a company that my grandfather was a part of, and it had always been at the foot of my parents' bed while I was growing up. Knowing this, my dad took it upon himself to figure out how to ship it by truck and made a crate complete with a pallet base so that it could be moved by a forklift. After traveling across the US, it made it safely to my home and serves as a reminder of the love of my dad. If you have parents, grandparents and others who are growing older, I encourage you to ask them questions about their lives and find out their stories. I had the priviledge of knowing that the end was near for my dad and with my sisters, created the opportunity to share memories and begin saying goodbye. Here is the blog that I wrote about that one year ago as well as one about telling your story. saying-goodbye.html tell-your-story.html Comments are closed.
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