Christmas 2011 Thoughts

Our Christmas was quiet and sad this year for we had an unexpected loss in our family...  My husband's mother quietly slipped away a few days before Christmas...  It was a shock because she had been relatively healthy...  We are still trying to comprehend her passing...  We miss her dearly...
With sadness and death we take comfort in our faith...

Dad

Today my Dad would have been 91...  He was born in 1920 and died from a stroke in 1997 soon after his 77th birthday.

Dad was such a special man...  When he was only 10 years old, he lost his right hand while playing ball with his friends.  The ball landed on a train track and he thought he could out run the train...  He was wrong...

On his birthday (with a smile on my face) I honor him by tying my shoes with my left hand only and challenge myself with left-hand only tasks.  If he was here, he would smile and think I was silly... but he would also think it was sweet...  It must have been hard losing his dominant hand.  Tying my shoes with my left hand is a challenge!

Funny thing, I never really thought about him as having only one hand until I went to college.  One day a friend asked, "What happened to your Dad's hand?"  You see, not only was he a professional (going to work every day in a three piece suit)... but when he came home, he fixed anything and everything that went wrong in the house!  He could fix our bikes, a plumbing leak, anything electrical... you name it, he could do it with just one hand!  He was one very determined man.  He adored my Mom, loved us kids, loved God and loved life.

I miss YOU, Dad!

God bless You!