I miss his goofy jokes....."hold on, your father wants to talk to you" my mother would say at the end of our lengthy phone conversation. He would get on the phone and say "geezz, I thought she'd never stop talking!" and then he would proceed to tell me a few jokes. Mostly ones he just read in the monthly Reader's Digest. And I would laugh my arse off!!! My father had a way of telling a joke ---- he's Irish, ya know.
Sometimes he would tell me of wood working plans he was thinking of. He loved wood working. One year his band saw burned out. All of us kids (7 of us) got together and bought him a new one for Christmas. Being that most of us live out-of-state, we left it to my sister and brother to pick it out. My son went and got it from the store with his pickup truck and got it down to the basement without Pop seeing it.
On Christmas, we had our usual conference call so we could all be on the phone to tell him "Merry Christmas, Pop!" He was soooo excited and thankful, you could almost "hear" the tears in his eyes.
I've been the recipient of many of those wood working plans. I have a full size Colonial cradle (mom made dolls and stuffed animals, a mattress pad, pillow and comforter for the inside); a corner hutch with glass doors and lighted shelves; a scalloped china plate shelf with 2 drawers; a 6-ft. long trestle Harvest table with 2 benches; a couple of picnic tables, one with attached benches, the other with separated ones; 2 Adirondack chairs and a blanket chest.
He and mom would bring them out to us when they visited in the Spring. All pieces were unfinished ("I just build them, you finish 'em", he would tell me), but he would bring all the hardware I needed. Once he brought me a can of stain/varnish he discovered that he thought worked "the nuts!" Of course --- he always finished the pieces he made for Ma. Oh ---- and it did work "the nuts!"
Pop, I miss you like crazy to this day. And I suppose I will til the day I die. I can't believe you're gone --- that you've been gone this long. Everyday brings a memory from the past. Love you!
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| Pop - 2 yrs. old 1929 |
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| 19 yrs. old |
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| 50th Wedding Anniversary 1998 |
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| In Minnesota - 2005 |
2 comments:
I know what you mean. I lost my mom 3 years ago in June. I still think I see her in the grocery store and have caught myself dialing her number to tell her something before it dawns on me! They leave big gaps.
Thank you, Judy. God bless.
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