February 10 would have been my dad’s 94th birthday! WOW! What makes this so amazing is that this year he will have been gone as long as he was alive . . . 47 years. He is forever frozen in time for me at the age of 47. It also gave me pause when I realized that when my birthday arrives in a few months, and I begin a new decade on this earth, I will have lived 13 years longer than my dad!
So much has changed in those 47 years. My dad did not see the assassinations that occurred in the following years of President Kennedy and his brother, Robert. He missed the Civil Rights Movement and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He would have been amazed that astronauts actually traveled in space and walked on the moon! And the sexual revolution of our generation . . . I don’t even want to go there!
He also missed my graduations from high school, college and grad school. He missed my marriage and my divorce. He missed seeing me become a teacher/librarian and follow in the footsteps of my mom. He missed seeing me blossom in so many ways. I think he would’ve been proud of how I handled things, even though I know there would’ve been a few things he would’ve wished I had done differently. But then, don’t most of us have a few things we wish we had done differently?
My dad was always my role model. We were best buds when I was a kid . . . he took me almost everywhere with him. I learned to fish at a very young age. I learned how to play pool when I was a teen. But most important of all, I learned to have a sense of humor! For without this sense of humor, I’m not so sure I would’ve been able to handle some of life’s more difficult moments as well as I did.
So, today, on his 94th birthday I want to say “thank you” to my dad. Thank you for being my role model. Thank you for your sense of humor. Thank you for being you.
~KK
February 10, 2009
