My father was Norwegian and German, not Irish. My DNA shows that I am 13% Irish. He died of congestive heart failure at age 89 on St. Patrick's Day in 2003. While looking for an image with which to honor him today, I came across the above photo among his slides that had been transferred to a computer disk. I don't recall ever seeing this particular photo before. I thought I had looked closely at all of his old photos. Odd how everything is tilted. My father and I had a difficult relationship, although I know he was very proud of me. I am his firstborn daughter and was named after his mother. I am the only daughter who inherited his blue eyes. Like him, I needed glasses beginning in grade school. In many ways I was unlike him, and there was conflict. When I was very young and playing on the floor, I heard him say proudly, "She is going to be a lawyer like her grandfather." I thought to myself, "I won't be a lawyer."
He was fond of these words:
"This the day the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it."
He said that the best movie he ever saw was "The Ten Commandments," with Charlton Heston.
He loved gardening and archeology and playing Solitaire and traveling and good food and baseball and puns and Snoopy. He loved his wife and his daughters and our dog, Star. He was proud of the work he did as a systems analyst for Chevron.
I just remembered that he used to sing this song which he must have first heard as a 9-year-old boy:
He sang this song, too, from that same era:
When I remember my father singing these songs from his childhood, I feel some peace in connection with him. I hope he found some peace in connection with me.
I am grateful that my last visit with him was a good one. I lit a candle for him today.
3 comments:
Your father sounds like he was an interesting man. I remember my father also singing Yes, we have no bananas. Maybe because there were such drastic changes in culture during the 50's - 70's, it made it more difficult for we children and our parents to have strong ties.
A lovely remembrance of your dad. I'm glad you lit a candle.
Nice reminiscence, Am. I'm grateful my parents never mentioned any expectations they had for my "career". My father is just grateful when I have money coming in from some source! I suppose they were curious to see what I'd end up doing -- I think they're still waiting, just as I am...
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