Run, Spot, Run

A TRIBUTE TO MY DAD

My Dad died on Jan. 26, 2004. He was 85. He was, besides my husband, the best man I ever knew: patient, smart, non-judgmental, good at fixing things, and, as a kid, I never remember him yelling at me. I do remember him spanking me once, with a hairbrush, although he denied it vigorously when we talked about it during his last weeks. He never spanked me again. I believe it hurt him more than it hurt me.

So much of who I am, how I respond to things around me, and most of all, my tendency to persevere, come directly from my Dad (who also left me his nose, which I never particularly liked. It looked good on him, but it wasn't a very good girl's nose.)

I'd like you to meet my Dad. He was always my biggest fan, and I'll never stop missing him.

 Shown above (lto r): I'm the cute one (the babe-in-arms) at my christening with Mom, Dad, and big sister, Earlene; Dad earned the rank of Technical Sergeant in the U.S. Army during WWII; I like to think of Inky as "my" dog, but I'm pretty sure she really liked Dad best; PopPop, as his six grandchildren called him, was especially proud of Bud, who overcame dyslexia to earn, not one, but two associate college degrees; Whadayathink? Dad with a crew cut and me as a `hippie'? Well, it was 1969, after all; thankfully, wedding or not, Dad never really "gave me away." He was always there for me.

Can you believe it? My Dad was once a teenager! I always thought he looked particularly handsome in his uniform. He served in Panama, on the edge of the Pacific Theater of WWII. It was a place considered vulnerable to attack by both the Germans and the Japanese, so it took tremendous courage to go there.

As a Marylander (a native of Baltimore), Dad, of course, had to go crabbing in the Chesapeake Bay. In the next photo, he got together with his youngest grandson, Josh Crisp, at Bud & Heidi's wedding, two men, one generation apart, who both served their country. They are holding the flag that was on my Uncle Bud's (Clarence Earl Herr's) casket when he was killed just prior to the official start of the Battle of the Bulge in Europe during WWII. An Army private and a medic, Uncle Bud was trying to rescue a wounded soldier when he was killed at the age of 19. In the case with Uncle Bud's casket flag is the Purple Heart he earned for his sacrifice.

Next comes a picture of Dad in his 70s, followed by Mom and Dad on their wedding day. It's funny to see your parents in old pictures when they were young, isn't it? It's make you suspect that some day, you might be old, too, and your own children and grandchildren will look at the photos of you being taken right now and think YOU look pretty funny!

Dad liked to entertain kids with his puppets. He billed himself as "Captain T."  At his funeral, Dad got his own flag of honor, just like Uncle Bud, whose life was cut so short. We were lucky to have Dad so much longer. He was special in a special way.

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