Welcome back my dear Friends.

I’m feeling that this week will welcome in some new energy and we can get back on track.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Fathers out there.

I wanted to write a little about my Father. He was such a character that’s for sure. I remember him most from hanging out with him watching TV in the “wreck” room eating those little small ice cream blocks. When I was sick we would watch TV and we would split the block in half and eat them right out of the package.

I remember going to the cottage on Head Lake for the summer, fishing and just hanging out. Life sure was different then. Everything now is so fast paced.

My Dad has been gone for many years but he lives forever in our hearts. He was the craziest Dad there ever was. I think we all got our sense of humour from him and our ability to laugh, especially at things that others wouldn’t laugh at.

He was known to many by different names. Some called him Albert and some called him Eddie.

Whenever the family gets together we laugh and laugh about all the funny things he did in his lifetime.

Bobby can’t believe some of the stories and whenever something strange comes up in our lives he says jokingly “What would Eddie do?”

Dad died of colon cancer just before his 65th birthday. As long as I can remember he had some kind of ailment. I think he had the first pacemaker ever invented. It was the size of one of our cell phones now. He didn’t take care of himself and loved to party hardy. It was kind of a twist of fate that he died before his 65th birthday because he so looked forward to being on his pension.

Here’s some of the funny things I remember and the things we laugh about so you can get to know what he was like.

* Before he died my brother went to see him and he was lying in bed with the blankets up over his head. My brother said hey Dad what are you doing? My Dad’s response “practicing”. He would kid about such things like that.

*My Dad decided that he wanted an iguana as a pet. He cut a hole in the wall for the aquarium (don’t ask) and had this foot long iguana in there. It sat there for days not moving or blinking. My Dad thought it to be dead so he tipped the aquarium onto the grass to get it out and it ran away. I’m wondering how big it is now!

* When we moved into our home there was the most beautiful rock garden around. The grounds were lovely. First my Dad brought his boat into the patio (Thinking back I’m not sure how it got in there because there was a fence? Hmmm?), then it got to be too much work to maintain so he got a shipment of this small stone and not only put it all over the garden but all over the backyard around the pool area. Then as he thought this was an amazing idea put up this yellow and green fence that was really panelling I think all around the back yard. The backyard stone was shortly after nicknamed “Kentucky Pea Stone” and all you have to do is say those words and it sends hysterics into our conversation at family gatherings. I always wondered what the neighbours thought. (If you lived around us, yes that was us.)

*When I was younger I was very sick with cancer. I was 13. Hodgkins Disease. It’s a wonder I made it through as back then it wasn’t that curable. Today it is thank goodness. My Dad was heartbroken and he did a very brave thing. He went to the library (this was brave for him) and he looked into some medical books and came back with the conclusion. “Oh my goodness, she’s a goner.” Well I’m sure he didn’t use those words. The reason being is he was in a very very old medical book. I didn’t know this until many years later when someone told me. The poor man holding that in while I was in treatment. I remember sitting downstairs in the “wreck” room combing my hair as it fell out from radiation treatment and him sitting beside me not knowing how to help but just being there was enough. I will always remember hanging out with him.

*My Dad loved my boys. Peter would go up for a few days to stay with them. Peter was a bit mischievous when he was a boy (still is a bit) and I would get calls like “Sharon we don’t know what to do. Peter went into the lazy susan and we can’t get him out.” They always managed though. I think they would sleep for 5 days after he left.

*Bobby’s favourite story of Dad is when he had this beautiful boat and this old car. He got it in his mind that what if we put these cool seats from the car into the boat. Great idea. Only thing is he used dry wall screws that were too long not noticing that they went right through the bottom of the boat. Thank goodness they got back to shore before they sunk right to the bottom of the lake.

Life was never dull and sure maybe Eddie wasn’t the “Leave it to Beaver” Dad but he was my Dad and although I may have an ice cream addiction and an adversion to alcohol all my life he taught me never to conform to the normal and to laugh at life and do silly things because that’s what Eddie would do.

Love you Dad wherever you are!

Here’s my quote for today:

“He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it”. ~Clarence Budington Kelland

Until we meet again, Sharon