July 30, 2002

My daddy died twenty years ago today.  I think of him and send him love every day, but July 30th will always be the day I spend the whole day remembering what made him so dear, special and ever-present in my life.

Whenever we traveled, he'd pull over and ask Bob and me to pose, especially at an overlook. In this one (don't know where we were) it looks like I was making a point of being bored.  My crew-cut brother Bob looks way more cheerful and up for another photo op.

He didn't "take pictures;" he always said, "I'm fixin' to make a picture."   At the time, I didn't get it.  But as it turned out, making pictures has been one of the things that brings me most pleasure, too. 

Last August, I made this collage for Carlene's 96th birthday--a photo of Carlene and Bob and me standing by our blue Pontiac, juxtaposed with a much-later photograph of the man who took almost every picture of our lives. They were married in 1945 and had 57 good years together.  None of us could have imagined life without the physical presence of this "giant of a man" whose entire life was devoted to us, the three he loved more than life. 

When their first grandchild was born 50 years ago, 

they made frequent visits to Texas to shower little Daisy with love

His last trip to Texas--on the occasion of Will's graduation from the fire academy, 2001.

Granddaddy was Will's best friend, the one he called to talk to all the time.

Just before this picture was made, he quipped,

"I'm going to call the chief and tell him not to let you go into any fires." 

In the last year of his life, he danced with his lifelong sweetheart at Bob and Jocelyn's wedding.

In May, before he died in July, I took this picture, the quintessential photo 

of him--fishing at somebody's pond.

He had just said these words, attempting to show me how to cast a line:

"Just put your finger right here."

(pronounced beautifully as "fanger") 

My children talk about him all the time.  My grandchildren didn't know him (only Jackson met him as a baby) but they talk about him as if they did.  Nathan still has a poster in his room he made in elementary school in which his motto was a direct quote of Granddaddy's: "Keep the main thing the main thing." 

We all carry pieces of him into the future and keep him alive with stories.  He was a generous, easy-going, funny, wonderful man, my daddy.  I just wish he could see:

Me making things in the house he bought me for a Christmas present after my divorce.....

The house itself--how it's changed since I picked it out with hopes of transforming it exactly as I've done....

The current branch of the family tree he started--my kids and grands...

How healthy and happy the love of his life is approaching her 97th birthday!