Father's Day

I've been thinking a lot about my father over the past few weeks. Dad was a typical southern man. He loved God, loved my mom, and he loved his kids. He wasn't always good at showing it, but I always knew. He worked tirelessly to provide for us. We were never wealthy, but we never went hungry. My dad passed away 11 years ago after a long battle with cancer. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him at least once. I can still remember reeling in largemouth bass with him on Douglas and Fort Loudon like it was yesterday. I remember how he would smoke his tobacco pipe and drink Miller Lite from a can. He never drank more than 2 in one day, and he always salted the rim of the can. I told him smoking would kill him and talked him into giving it up when I was 7 or 8 years old. Every year since then I've driven up to Douglas Lake and gone out in the cove where we used to fish. I know he would love to have been here for a lot of things in the past few years. He wasn't able to be here when I graduated from college or from the police academy. He wasn't here to see me swell with pride the first time I pinned on that badge. He never got to see me fall in love. But now that I'm writing all this down, I guess it hit me that he's been there all along watching over his family. I know he's helped me through a lot of hard times and I know he's with me now. I wish he was still here, lately more than ever, but I thank God for the time I had with him. I miss you dad.

"I always was one who didn't take things for granted. But I think I do appreciate things more now. The small moments of joy that we find each day are so much more precious now than when I looked at them before." - Chris Ledoux