Sunday, June 15, 2008

. . . celebrated all dads



This is my dad, with my son Matt. It must have been taken in 1982. He thought Matt hung the moon. Matt was the eldest grandson. My dad died in 1986. He was 42 when I was born; 52 when my youngest sibling was born. He worked a lot -- there were six kids to support. He read us stories before we had a TV, and he intervened on our behalf with Mom, who did not want us to ever have a TV. He was a peace-loving veteran of WWII, one of the greatest generation. He made sure we had what we needed, but not always what we wanted. When asked what he wanted for a gift-giving occasion, he always said "Peace and quiet." Boring, we thought at the time. Then came the time when we fully understood that request. In the picture you can see the nasty old recliner that was his perch in the family room. He didn't ask for much, gave us a lot, and I would like to think he would be proud of his kids, his grandkids, and his greatgrandkids.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the photo, Love the comments. It's so true and I think he would be happy and proud of all of us! Thanks for honoring him, Mary.

Anna

Martha Marshall said...

What a wonderful picture, Mary! His face shows that he would have been proud indeed. What a national treasure grandparents are. And he sounds like he was a great dad!

Mary Buek said...

Martha: My dad was one of the two nicest men in the world. The other was my father-in-law. I am a very lucky person to have known both of them.

Mary Buek said...

Hey, Anna, I just noticed something. Look at their noses. They are just alike. As well as their steely blue eyes. You and Hil and Stevie looked like him . . . and remember how Matt always looked like Stevie when he was little?