It’s Father’s Day!  A day set aside to remember and honor fathers.  Mine is gone but the father of my children is by my side. 

My father was an aircraft mechanic on Guadalcanal with the Army Air Corp and later he continued in that profession as a civilian. He always wrote on every picture he ever had.  Sometimes with arrows so you know who he was talking about.  Not an artist, he would often grab a napkin to illustrate what he was talking about.  Conversations around the table often revolved around his second love – next to his family – aircraft maintenance.  He’d draw a fuselage to show what he was talking about. And as a mechanic, he was certain he could fix anything.  He once built a pontoon boat that he found in a magazine and ordered the plans.  We used it for many years. 

My husband and father of my children was also a very present father in the lives of his kids.  He worked an early morning shift for years and then he was home when the kids came in from school.  He was a scout master and baseball coach to the neighborhood kids who often hung out at our house. With his early morning shift that allowed me to work afternoons, someone was home for the kids when they weren’t in school.

These days my husband is a grandfather to five grandchildren, all grown.  They are scattered around living in different places and won’t make dinner for him today, but we are having a Father’s Day celebration this evening.  We wouldn’t have it any other way.  It is a day of celebration for the hard work and dedication he showed as he helped raise them and the continuing relationship they have today.

Happy Father’s Day!

What are you doing this week?