Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday. He would have been 82 today. Sadly, he passed away over 10 years ago at the age of 71. I still miss him. Even though we were all long gone from home with families of our own, he was still a source of wisdom, advice and spiritual strength. His passing certainly left a hole in all of our lives.

In many respects, he had a hard life. He was born just before the Great Depression, the tenth of thirteen children. I remember him telling us that one year the whole family got a basketball for Christmas. That's it--one basketball. Dad suffered from physical ailments which affected his ability to live a normal life at times. He worked hard physically his whole life, even after he received his EdD and was teaching at Northern State College in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He and Mom struggled to make ends meet for many years.

Maybe because of all that, Dad was a spiritual giant. Because we lived in a family setting and dealt with the ups and downs of family life, I don't think we always recognized the spiritual wisdom he had. He fasted often; he sacrificed to help others. He was a keen student of the scriptures. I think he had the gift of discernment. He was able to see into the hearts of others.

He wasn't perfect. He was absent-minded. He was a little kooky, eccentric, unique--I don't know exactly what adjective to use. There are some pretty funny stories anyone in the family could tell you. At Ethan's wedding, Todd Hendrickson told us his "10 cow wife" story. Let me just say that Dad enjoyed it as much as Todd did. I remember his attitude toward the solid double lines in the middle of the road which indicate no passing. He believed that those lines didn't necessarily apply to him--they were for those who did not have good judgement of their own.

In the ten years since Dad has been gone, I have felt him very close to me on a handful of occasions. I'm thankful for that evidence of continuing love and support. I have found this quote from the book TheLife Beyond by Robert L. Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie to be comforting:

"When a righteous man ora righteous woman die, they do not cease to love their family in the flesh, they do not cease to pray for them, they do not cease to labor in their behalf. As their family was their primary concern in this life, so it will continue to be their primary concern on the other side of the veil. We would demean the nature of their labors in the spirit world to suppose that they had nothing more to do than to conduct a daily watch over those they left behind; yet the love and interest is still there, and on special occasions their presence will be felt and in some instances, as appropriate, they may be granted the privilege to more fully manifest themselves, though these treasures of heaven will not be common." p. 85-86

I don't think I ever saw Dad change a diaper. Men just didn't do that when he and Mom were raising their family. But Dad loved children. All of us have sweet memories of Dad dancing with our kids, singing to them, cheering them on in sports, loving them. A small measure of comfort has come to me thinking of Dad and Logan being together on the other side, talking of things of eternal importance, working together, singing together, looking down on us occasionally, maybe even shaking their heads and tsk, tsking over the state of BYU football. I'm thankful for their continued love. Happy Birthday, Dad! Thanks for everything. I love you!