Thursday, June 10, 2010

My Husband The Father

(This is a repost from a couple of years ago in which I honored my husband on Father's Day.)

Our children adore him and have utmost respect for him.
Hallmark card

Our younger daughter stopped by today with this card for her Daddy. She chose this card carefully. It represents memories she has of sitting on her Daddy's lap as a little girl in an orange chair we had at the time clutching her Teddy which after all these years still has its stuffing and is on display in her home. She had kind, loving words to say about her Daddy today...and about me. We thanked her. It felt good.

This is my husband with our first child Christina. See the warmth and pride he exudes as he looks at our daughter. Early in our relationship I recognized qualities in him that convinced me he would make a good father. I was not wrong.
This is my husband and daughter Christina again on graduation day...his graduation day from college. He worked hard to get his college degree. He obtained most of it while serving in the Air Force. After serving his time he had about a year left to go in order to finish his degree. But we had one child and another on the way. Still we decided it needed to be done. So, my husband took a job working the night shift at a local mental hospital so that he could attend college during the day.

A few weeks after our son was born, my husband graduated from college. Unfortunately I could not attend the graduation ceremony, because our son had serious health issues at the time and I could not leave him or take him with me. I was very proud of my husband though and shared in his joy and relief that it was over. A few years later our third child was born, a girl. She completed our family. Here we are all together, my husband, myself, our two daughters, Christina and Margaret, and our son Buddy.
My husband and our three children one Easter when leisure suits were the thing and most men were trying to grow beards in celebration of our country's bicentennial.
Our family portrait taken in 1983 when the children were all teenagers and in high school. Our son was all bulked up for football. As you can see, we are animal lovers with our two dogs and our cat. We couldn't get the fish to pose for the picture though. (snicker..)
This is a goof-off photo we took of our family the Christmas of 1985 with one of those cameras that has a timer and can sit on a tripod. I love this shot. I included it because it is an example of the kind of fun time we had together as a family when the kids were growing up. My husband and I did a lot of talking with our children about many things. He reminded me not too long ago about the summer nights all of us would spend outside on our patio talking and talking about everything under the sun...or maybe I should say under the stars.

Here we are together as a family in 1987 when my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. At that point our three children were in college. Not too many years later one by one our children started getting married and beginning families of their own.

It has been seventeen years since our first grandchild was born. We were privileged to be there to witness her birth. Now we have 14 grandchildren and my husband is the proud papa to all his grandchildren who love and adore him.

This is Papa (my husband) and our granddaughter Sarah. See the warmth and pride he exudes as he looks at our granddaughter.

This morning on the kitchen counter I had his oatmeal ready and waiting for him to come down to breakfast. I had his super-duper smoothie there which I make for both of us practically each morning. It is chock full of good things (apple, banana, blueberries, orange juice, protein powder,....yada, yada, yada) that I hope will keep us healthy and going for many more years. This Father's Day table-scape included the gift I gave him, which is one of those fancy fork thermometers he can use when he grills meat, and a Father's Day card.

The card I selected for him says it better than I could myself. It talks about how we watched as first steps became first days of school for our children. It talks about letting go and letting them grow, but with hearts that still hold them tight. It talks about how time flies and how here we are just the two of us. But what this card said that spoke to me the most is that he, my husband, is my home. So I signed the card "To a wonderful daddy and papa. You have always been the good father and you will always be my home. All my love..."

Happy Father's Day dear husband!


17 comments:

  1. Susie, I want to wish your husband a very Happy Father's Day. You sure are fortunate to find the man that you have described to me over the last two or so years. I might add and your husband surely knows, how fortunate he is to find someone as caring and witty as you are Susie. They are very nice pictures and illustrate the times at which they where taken with the clothing and hairstyles.

    My Father refused to wear a polyester leisure suit. He would say "If he HAD to wear a suit he was going to wear a good quality wool suit from Sears". I remember that discussion with Mom, yikes! My Dad, a stubborn Irishman as the day was long but gosh I miss him a lot.

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  2. Such a wonderful tribute to a man who truly knows what it takes to be, not just a Father, but a Daddy!

    Such priceless pictures...I really enjoyed seeing them all.

    Have a sweet week ahead!

    Hugs,
    Sue

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  3. Those pictures bring back a lot of
    memories Susie. It was nice to see
    them. You know how they say that
    pictures speak louder than words,
    well I think these pictures say it
    all.
    I always knew you had a keeper of a
    hubby and father. You home was always a pleasant place. I appreciated that so much.
    Happy Father's Day to a truly nice
    guy!

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  4. Nice pics! I love the seeing old pictures of people. You have a nice family!

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  5. Oh, a very Happy belated Father's Day to your husband. I loved reading this...and seeing the wonderful pictures through the years.
    Such a sweet tribute!

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  6. JG: Thanks for the best wishes for my husband. He'll be reading this post I have done in his honor, so he will be reading the comments too.

    Yes, I count myself lucky to have found a man like him. We don't always see eye to eye on every little detail, but we are in agreement when it comes to the important things in life.

    On those leisure suits, I made (sewed) one for my husband back then. I did a good job putting it together with my simple little Singer sewing machine.

    SUSIE Q: I feel like I writing to myself when I address you. Thanks for the kind words. Had you only wished me a healthy weekend though, maybe I would not have come down with this annoying summer cold.

    SHARON: In that one photo of my hubby with our three children in front of the bush, that was at our home in So. Illinois. Our Margaret always referred to that bush as the "cat" bush, because it was under that big bush that the cats always seemed to congregate.

    WRECKLESS: Thanks for the kind words and best wishes. I need to get over to your blog and see what you are up to this summer.

    TAMMY: Thanks to you as well. I visited your blog this evening and left a comment.

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  7. Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. I always like to see a new face. You have a beautiful family and I enjoyed reading about them.

    I see in your profile you're from Illinois....me, too! I grew up in Decatur.

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  8. JANET: Thanks for paying me a visit. So you are an Illinois girl too.

    The photos of flowers you have at your blog has inspired me to do a post featuring some of the flowers I have in my yard. I hope you will return here to view them.

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  9. What a BEAUTIFUL post! Such a lovely tribute to a wonderful huband and father - grandfather....!
    It was wonderful to be introduced to you and your family this way.

    Thanks so much for the visit! I LOVE these plants and flowers in my garden so much that the motivation for me going down there is a selfish one as well as wanting to share. So glad you appreciated them.

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  10. Oh, what a gorgeous family...! You are so lucky. My husband died and my daughter and I are, to all intents and purposes, estranged. Family is more important than anything, and I made my heart feel warm to read your post and see your beautiful pictures.

    Cheers,
    Josie

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  11. I don't want to change the subject of this post, but I wanted to tell you something that I can't yet post at POI.

    You’ve perhaps seen me refer to my brother Dave [2 years older] in a post or two. Well, he lives in a small historic district of registered centennial homes north of Detroit 3.5 hours from my house. He is an excellent videographer/ filmmaker both privately and commercially. He is shooting my daughter's wedding next week. He also made two films to show: one at the wedding and one at the reception. Anyway, he called Tuesday to say they were done and ready to put in the mail. He then went a few blocks away to a friend's house. Within the hour, his son called. He was asleep in his upstairs bedroom and woke up choking in smoke. The house was burning. [The fire started in a junction box in the basement and climbed up the clothes chute.] Dave came home and 4 fire trucks soon joined him. He called back while they were busting out windows and hosing down his house. They'll be out of the house for 4 months. Basically, everything is either burned, melted, or smoke damaged. Amazingly, a fireman pulled much of his editing suite out to the lawn. In the pile were his cameras, hard drives, computers, and over 400 baby-thru-dating pictures of my daughter and her fiancĂ©. They were sooty and smelled of smoke, but were not burned. The house was full of antiques on both floors. Most can be salvaged some were destroyed or cannot be saved.
    Insurance is taking good care of them. He insists on still shooting the wedding. They’re spirits are very good considering what these past two days have held.
    It's too soon and sensitive to post this at POI, but I wanted to tell some folks about it. Thanks for listening. =)

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  12. Tom (Patterns): I am so sorry to hear about your brother's house fire. Thank God no one was harmed especially his son who could have easily died from smoke inhalation. I hope he is still okay.

    It is heartbreaking that your brother's family likely lost so much that is irreplaceable. I am thinking of family pictures which may not have made it through the fire unscathed. And family keepsakes, too, all those little memorable items we keep for sentimental reasons.

    This comes at a terrible time for your entire family with the wedding just days away. But any time is a terrible time for a house fire.

    You and your family will be in my prayers and thoughts, Tom. Stay safe...all of you.

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  13. You really should give workshops or something on how to do personal blogs. Everyone's had the experience of being bored by other people's family photos, but the way you arrange them and combine them with narration is great. I think if more people did this sort of thing with family photos it would make them a lot more meaningful.

    This would also make for a great archive for, say, your great grandchildren. It's much better than a bunch of unexplained photos whose significance gradually gets lost as the older people pass on and after awhile people aren't always even certain of the identities of the family members in the photos.

    No kidding, seems to me you're really onto something with this.

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  14. There is something about being a Grandparent that is soooo different from being a parent. I'll bet that your granddaughter has her Grandpa wrapped around her little finger.

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  15. Thanks for the visit SusieQ....As it turned out there were a few really WONDERFUL people connected to the DMV who couldn't have been nicer! It truly renewed my faith in Hunanity....(Getting to those people was the great gift that Mark performed....)

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  16. Hi Suzie Q,
    What a loving tribute to your husband. Sounds like he's a very special guy. How nice that your daughter found a card with the orange chair and teddy bear. Very touching!
    xo

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  17. Naomi: Thanks. I am trying to put together a post of photos I have taken this spring of my yard and flowers. But I am having trouble with my Broadband connection and Dial-up is too darn slow and can't handle the load. I'll let you know when I have something posted. I am glad you found someone to help you out with renewing your driver's license. Thanks for stopping by both times.

    Josie: Thanks for the kind words. I hope you and your daughter make up really soon. Life is too short and you have too much to give to those grandchildren.

    Paul: Thanks for the compliment. Actually I think I get my inspiration for combining photos and narritive from other bloggers. There are some really good blogs out there that I have been following lately. I agree that photos take on meaning when there is something put into words to accompany them.

    Lucy: Yes. Being a grandparent is so much different from being a parent. For one thing, you can send the kiddies back to their parents when they start wearing you out. And yes, little Sarah has most of us wrapped around her little finger. Her daddy (our son) is the worst of all. She is destined to be a Daddy's girl.

    Susie: Thanks. In fact your blog is one that has inspired me to include more photos in my posts and to write something about them. You do this yourself. And what a great blog you have!

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