BAD Reads
Why April 23 Is Special
Yes, I know, it's Shirley Temple's birthday. And that of the Bard of Avon, Master William Shakespeare.
But what makes today significant to me is that it's my dad's 84th birthday today.
It's also the third anniversary of his quadruple bypass surgery. Probably the most expensive birthday gift anyone ever got!
My dad served in the Army Air Force during WWII teaching pilots how to fly. He spent more than 40 years working as an optometrist, not in a big commercial eye center, but in a small private practice, where his patients got the sort of old fashioned, thorough care that is now the stuff of nostalgia.
He's barely traveled--except for his Air Force time, trips to Cape Cod and a 40th anniversary trip to Canada--his first time out of the country.
He's been married to my mom 45 years this June and he's still crazy about her. I can't tease him about anything of the things she does that I KNOW drive him wild, because he always flies to her defense.
We never had a lot of money, but he and my mother gave my brother and myself all the things that matter. Their time and their love. Not fancy toys or vacations to Disney World.They didn't worry about our "self-esteem" or try to put us into endless enrichment programs.
And while they did NOT raise us with religion, they gave us what I think are a fine set of values. I will never forget my father's comment when my brother started teasing me about my work--pointing out that if I was a librarian in the private sector, I'd make a lot more money.
My father's comment--"That's never what mattered in THIS family!"
He's 84 today. His name will never be written in a history book. He will never have his picture on the cover of People magazine. Television will never document his "fabulous life".
But he's rich in the thing that matters most--the love of his family. He's got a wife that still adores him after all this time, a son and a daughter who know how lucky they are to have such a man as their father, and 4 loving grandchildren, who adore their grandpa.
I hope my daughters and my nephews will grow up to be as kind, as smart, and as loving as he is.
And I hope that my brother and I can be good enough parents to give them the sense of love and security that we will always carry from our own childhoods.
Happy Birthday, Daddy. You're not reading this, but no matter how seldom I get the chance to see you and say it, you know how much I love you........................................
