Thankful Thursday: remembering my dad

Today I’m thankful for my dad.

We lost him way too soon - 24 years ago today.

His life was too short but his legacy is huge and expansive.

• I’m thankful for the lessons he taught and the examples he set.
• I’m thankful for the ways I am like him - well, except that he was such a pack-rat!
• He was a plodder and just kept working on things one step at a time - although he never did quite finish getting rid of everything from those shelves in the shed.  Drats!  I fear that as my destiny as well.

But he was kind and patient and compassionate - and so many remember him as someone who loved them.  I really want to be like that.

I’m pretty sure I got my love of words and writing from him.  I don’t know if he ever considered himself a writer, but he was definitely diligent about writing.  He researched and composed and printed a centennial history book for the church... but mostly he wrote long, loving letters to friends and family.  I lived less than a mile from him... but there were those four years when I was away at college and that one year we moved our family to the Dominican Republic.  Those years away qualified me to receive his famous chronicles in my mailbox and for that privilege I am thankful.  

Might be time to revisit my letter-writing plan.  Well, it also might be time to go find those packets of letters from him
 in my bins and boxes piled up on all those shelves!

The man

Lee Wellington D'Arcy,
born June 30, 1919

Farmer

Single dad

Loyal friend

Preacher boy

Faithful husband

Patient father
Good steward
School board chairman
Stockyard worker
Builder of Marlette Homes
Loving grandpa
Real estate agent

Wordsmith and prolific writer of letters

Sunday School Superintendent for decades - who did everything in his power to make people feel loved and welcome

Gentle

Humble

Cautious

Deliberate

Intentional

Resourceful

He had big feet - size 13.

He could sleep almost anywhere.

Sang bass in more than one quartet

Played the guitar

Loved the music of George Beverly Shea, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Johnny Cash, Laurence Welk, Buck Owens and Roy Clark…

The centennial

Celebrating the centennial of my dad’s birth

He’s been gone 23 years but I really wanted to do something special this year to celebrate.

A hundred years is a big deal

Significant

Worth celebrating

Lots of fanfare

How do you celebrate a centennial?

A parade comes to mind

A huge event - with hundreds of people in attendance
Lots of hoopla

I didn’t know how to make any of that happen 
... so I would write a book about him.

A biography

A best-seller

Well, maybe not…

But loads of people loved my dad and some of them MIGHT want to read it.
... and maybe even buy their own copy.  
Or not.

I worked on it for a long time.

But it didn't turn out quite the way I hoped.

Yep, I tend to get big ideas.

My imagination can go a little crazy with wild ideas.
I’m not always so good at bringing them to life.

So I kept reminding myself to be practical.

And I WAS diligent about working on the various steps.

I kept plodding

Doing what I could

Gathering notes and ideas

Sorting through hundreds of photos

And I DID produce a book.

Just not the book that I hoped for.

I was planning a book with hundreds of pages and a few photos here and there.

I ended up with a photo book with a few lines of text here and there.

I did proclaim a centennial month.

And I did produce my own little parade - of photos - on my Facebook page.

But it didn’t feel like enough.

It was underwhelming.

No fanfare, no hoopla.

No parade

No huge event

A chintzy celebration for a great life.

I was tempted to be a teeny bit sad.

So then I asked myself what a centennial is for anyway.

Who is it for?

I’m not sure.

I just know that I wanted to honor this man.

So I tried…

I tried to do more than I could.

And then I did what I knew to do.

What I had the energy and resources to accomplish.

He would not ask more of me.

He might have commented on my tendency to attempt too much.

Again.

He might have asked me what I am learning from this.

Again.

…

He also attempted great things.

But he knew enough to take small steps.

That’s how he accomplished the great things he did.

Little by little.

One thing at a time.

And that’s what I ended up doing.

I was willing to tweak my goals to make them more practical.

I need not be disappointed in myself.

I succeeded in doing what I could to honor my dad.

He would be proud of me and I can be proud of myself.

Besides he wouldn't have wanted a lot of hoopla.