My Daddy…

Today is April 15.  For many, the day will only mean the deadline for filing their income taxes.  For me, it’s always meant ‘daddy’s birthday’.  (Our taxes have always been filed weeks before the deadline, and, a refund is already in the bank.) Daddy’s been gone for nearly 23 years, but I still think of his birthday, every April 15.

old birthday pic of daddy

Daddy was only sixty-five when he passed away.  Back then, sixty-five seemed kind of old.  These days, not so much!

Our youngest son, Brad, was barely three, when daddy became ill.  I doubt that Brad has many memories of daddy, at all, and I know he doesn’t have any memories of  my daddy as a healthy man.  Daddy spent most of the last four years of his life either in a hospital or a nursing home.

Daddy was severely burned, as a child, while he was trying to build a fire in the fireplace.  He was burned on his lower abdomen, and carried the scars on his belly, from age six until he died.  He, also, carried many other scars on his belly, by the time he passed away.  He endured several surgeries during his final years of living.  He died from sepsis (blood poisoning), but he had a bad liver, and pancreatic cancer, in addition to a host of other problems.

One thing that stands out in my memories of daddy, is how he loved to eat!  The servings on his plate, at family dinners, always testified to that 🙂

It’s only fitting since daddy loved to eat, that he also loved growing food.  The man had a ‘green thumb’, and could grow anything!  Daddy could grow enough food, in his little city garden, to feed an army.  In fact, sometimes, he sold produce to local grocery stores!

Daddy was a great cook, too.  When I was a teenager, daddy did most of the cooking at our house–and he became quite good at it!  Some of his specialties were pork & rice, mustard greens, vegetable soup, and cornbread.  Daddy was quite good on the grill, too.  His bar-b-qued chicken was some of the best I’ve ever had.

 

 Daddy celebrating a birthday at Ed’s parents’ house

Daddy held various jobs, throughout the years.  He tried his hand at farming, he was a salesman for the Sunbeam Bread Co., and he once ran a grocery store, but daddy spent the majority of his later years working as a guard at the Georgia State Prison, before he finally retired.

The Georgia State Prison is the place where the original movie ‘The Longest Yard’ , starring Burt Reynolds, was filmed.  Daddy worked there while the filming was taking place, and oh the stories daddy used to tell!  In fact, daddy used to tell lots of stories about prison, and some would make your hair stand on   end!  In the photograph above, daddy is wearing his guard uniform.

Speaking of the photograph above, it was taken during a birthday celebration at Ed’s parents’ house.  Ed’s daddy’s birthday was exactly two weeks before my daddy’s, and, sometimes, we’d have a joint celebration, at one house or another.  Looking back, I realize how blessed Ed and I were that our parents got along so well!  It made life so much easier for us.

These days, both of our daddies celebrate their birthdays in heaven–along with both of our mothers, who happened to both have May birthdays…but that’s a post for another day!