OBJ
Supreme Mariner
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2002
- Messages
- 10,161
A guy I've been keeping in contact with recently lost his father. He wrote the eulogy. Says a lot about the way a son sees his father and how much love is there. I want to share it with you all.....don't think he will mind.<br /><br />You know, it's a funny thing about being a dad, you dont get an instruction manual or anything, just a bunch of bills and all the sudden, you arent the most important thing in your wifes life this new little baby is. But you go on, being both husband and father, and as the married fathers here can tell you, it's a thankless job.<br />Of course, being a kid is no picnic either, you have to learn how to walk and talk and ride a bike, and there isnt an instruction book for that either, just a really hard learning curve full of falls and cuts and scrapes and mistakes
and dad picks you up and dad picks you up and dad picks you up and eventually you start to get the hang of life. You still make mistakes, but you pick your own self up, and your dad cheers you on. You get a little older, and dad busts your chops a bit, but there is a lesson in the laughs if you listen hard enough. Years go by seemingly endlessly, and you share times, good times, bad times, whatever your times may be, fishing, bowling, boating, playing cards or just drinking beer watching a baseball game.<br />Time is relentless, and slowly steals what once you knew; the hero of your childhood begins the fade to gray. Losses come faster, and reach farther, burrow deeper, down to layers that are in youth unknown. Eventually the sons become the father, and the father, the son. A gift of love at long last returned<br /><br />I want to take you to a beautiful place, but this beauty comes at the cost of pain.<br />Now, rarely did my father cry; once when his father died, and then for his dog Smokey, bear in mind that he had a hip replaced and his bones shattered and reconstructed in these last 20 years. Tears for his father, tears for his dog. No tears for himself. At seven in the evening we gave him morphine. He began to look around, surrounded by those who loved him, on a day when he saw faces he hadnt seen in years and now these faces are crying, saying good- bye and I love you Dad, I love you so much.<br /><br />The look in his eyes was one of absolute terror, and then they slowly filled with tears. I thought he asked for mom, I wasnt sure so I asked him what he said and put my ear close enough to hear and I heard him say, I want my mom. In the crushing emotion of that moment the world seemed to stop, but I managed to tell him shes waiting for you Dad, youll be with her soon, it's ok, dont be scared, your moms there.<br />We all reassured him that his mom was waiting, and a very peaceful look came over him. Tears no longer filled his eyes; his mother had dried them as she had done so very long ago. <br /><br />And see, thats the beautiful part, that even though his mom left this earth fifty years ago, she never left Dad. He carried her in his heart until the very last moment of his life; and with the gentle grace he so often talked about, she led him to a world beyond our imagination. So too will Dad live inside all of us, for us to carry inside our heart.<br />Eventually, we all fall down. For my sister, my brother and myself, Dad will be waiting to pick us back up.<br /> Hiya Pal!<br /><br />Now I want you to turn to the back of the tri fold pamphlet, to the poem written by the prolific Greek poet Anonymous. It's title is I did not die. If you wish to join me in the reading out loud, feel free to do so, but if you cant, hell still hear you.<br /><br /><br />Do not stand on my grave and weep <br />I am not there I do not sleep. <br />I am a thousand winds that blow<br />I am the diamond glints in the snow<br />I am the sunlight on ripened grain<br />I am a gentle Autumns rain<br />When you awaken in the morning hush <br />I am the swift uplifting rush<br />I am the birds in circled flight <br />I am the soft stars that shine at night<br />So do not stand on my grave and cry<br />I am not there.... I did not die<br /><br />See ya later dad!<br /><br />(and he would always answer, Be Careful!)<br /><br />Gonna miss ya buddy
