My Dad's the Greatest!

85 years ago today, my Dad was born! He is my Dad, but he is so many other things too...he has been friend to many, a Physician to many, practicing for 60 years. He is a husband and caregiver to my Mother in her failing health...and was a loving son in law to my grandmother (one of the greatest women who ever lived!). He is a father to my sister (younger of course!), and a father/grandfather to all 3 of my "fatherless" boys. He is a golf pro (!) and tennis pro( in the past when he would drag me out of my warm bed at 6:00 a.m. to go and play tennis in the freezing cold...( I think he took particular pleasure in rousing me persistently, when he knew I had been out that Saturday night, undoubtedly up to no good and hungover)... no amount of pleading on my part, seemed to soften his resolve!

When you are young you just see your parents as older people who have, and have had, no other life than the one you have witnessed. As you get older, you start to become curious as to what events have shaped their lives prior to, and even during, your own existence with them. Our culture particularly is less apt to sit and listen to the stories of the past, and we lose so much by not taking that time.

I only learned recently, that when my father was a small boy, he caught scarlet fever, and was sent off to a "sanatorium" which was way out in the middle of the moors of Sheffield, far away from his family. Parents weren't allowed to come in and visit, so they would drive many miles, to stand out in the cold and look at him through a window! He was there for several months, including during Christmas...now how sad is that!

Anyway the point is, he has contributed all sorts of things, in all sorts of areas, and in all sorts of lives, and is most assuredly one of the humblest men I ever known (I think Christ would have to top him... but close!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Dad...sorry I wasn't there to eat cake!