longarm;
Good morning to you sir, I hope the day in your part of the world is as mild and bright as it is here and that this finds you well.
Thanks for the thought provoking thread and thanks to the respondents who've chosen to share with us, both the pleasant and less so memories.
While it absolutely wasn't always so, as I left home at 15, my father and I made a concerted effort to mend fences afterward and as much as possible be on good terms with each other.
He'd had his first major heart attack at 51, had several others which nearly took him as well and finally his 3rd stroke took him 32 years later. As some know as well of me, I was involved in an auto incident at 15 - after I'd left home - which brought me to the very edge of the next world, so we sorta had that in common.
When we'd meet then, we'd do our best to spit out what was on our mind of late, since we were both aware that it might well be the last time we'd speak in this life.
Things I recall him exhorting me were gems like, "Your life is the only Bible some people are ever going to read son, do your best to live what you believe."
Another one was, "If you're not learning something, best look around as you're likely dead!"...then he'd laugh in his low chuckle that would shake his whole body, touch you on the arm the way old guys do and add, "But you're going to find there's some things you don't want to learn again..."
The afternoon before he passed, he and Mom had returned from my elder brother's 50th Birthday back on the prairies and it had been the first time Dad was cleared to fly in decades so he was feeling in top shape.
We were standing in my shop, either working on a rifle or some project and were just going over who of my relatives they'd seen and talked to, the state of farming in Saskatchewan, that sort of thing. He stopped and said to me, "You know Dwayne I'm going to turn 83 this year and I can't make sense of that. Somewhere I've misplaced about 30 years as I don't feel much older than mid 50 or so. You know, it's been a faster trip than I thought it'd be."
That's what stuck with me from the last conversation we had, Dad being Dad and telling me in his way to make my days count for something.
By most measures Dad wasn't a rich man when he passed, but the church was standing room only for his services, cars parked up and down the road and the parking lot packed, so I'd say by that he'd swung a pretty wide loop for an old retired farmer who moved west 23 years previous.
Anyways sir, that's my recollections of a man who I was proud to call both a friend and my father. I'm turning into "that old guy" more and more these days, sometimes even touching the young guys on the arm when I want them to understand I mean what I'm trying to say.
These days I'm trying to still be useful, as anymore that's what I find the most rewarding personally and in the end, history will judge me just the same way it will all of us I suppose.
Thanks for letting me think for a bit and attempt to articulate a response. All the best to you folks and stay well.
Dwayne
