9-10-11 is a Date I'll Never Forget

I got a phone call at 3:15 this morning that has changed my life. When my phone rang, I knew immediately there was a problem when I saw my parent's number on the caller ID. I thought that maybe one of my parents was ill and needed help, my Papaw had died, or something worse. My mother was crying on the other end and told me that my Daddy had died. It was sudden. It was unexpected. It was all just too much for a moment. He went peacefully and without pain. I don't think we are ever prepared for these phone calls in life that change everything.

The entire day has been a whirlwind of watching coroners, morticians, family, friends, food that I can't quite stomach to even eat, funeral arrangements, telling my Papaw that he has outlived all his family, tears, memories, pictures, questions, concerns, holding my mother as he cries,and numbness. My stomach was in knots and it didn't feel real. The things I saw, heard, and felt today are things you never want to deal with, but have to some day. These are things that are a part of life, but shouldn't be happening to a 66 year old man. I didn't want to deal with these things until my parents had lived to be a ripe old age.

My Dad had a few health problems, had chronic pain from a back surgery, but had been feeling better lately and did not have a terminal illness. He made tomato juice yesterday, fiddled around outside, argued politics with my Papaw, and apparently drew his last breath within a couple of hours of midnight. My parents have had some eerily forshadowing conversations the past week or so and for that we are forever thankful and grateful.

Where was our warning in all this? I left this evening and went to my little children who also lost their G-Daddy at too young of an age to be thinking about this. He had big plans to take them fishing, which never happened and would feed them enough life savers to make them sick each time they visited. Not long ago, he sat out on my back patio after I moved and played Old Maid with my kids and would bluff them and get the biggest kick out of it. One reason I bought a brick house was due to my Daddy working many years laying brick. I can't hardly think of buying a house that is anything else.

Tonight I had to hold my children as they cried and told me that they wanted to be brave so I wouldn't cry. What sweet little souls! They make me smile even in the midst of sorrow and confusion.

Here is my parents and all the grandkids on (what we didn't know was) Daddy's last Christmas 2010:


Here is my Daddy a few years ago taking my kids for a Redneck hayride (ha ha):