June 17, 2001 was Father's Day

....and the last one I had with my Dad.
A King Edward cigar-
My dad's favorite,
Waits for him.
Just as I do-
Until I see my Dad again
In Heaven.

October 18, 2001 was Thursday

....and the day a man who loved me more than life went Home. My sweet Big Daddy Don battled diabetes like the warrior he was, yet the filthy disease wound up with the victory of the war...

I know Dad would get such a kick from this terra cotta pot thing I am doing. I can see him now-With his King Edward cigar secured in his mouth, Dad would inspect the pot. Cigar smoke circling the pot. Then he'd do his nod and "hmm-mm" of approval. He'd ask me about them and say the pots were pretty. Of course, Dad would then sit the pot on the end table by his chair. We'd get to watching some TV, probably Andy Griffith Show and Dad would need to flick off the ashes from this cigar...into guess what? Yep. My pot! I'd yell, "Dad!" He'd get his eyes all big, and shrugged his gentle giant shoulders and go, "Well, ain't it a ashtray?" We would both laugh. I laugh even now just with the thought of it.

Ten years today. A decade. Where has the time gone? I miss my dad. Sometimes I swear I can smell that cigar smoke in this house. I know my sweet daddy's spirit lifts me up ti this day.

...and I wouldn't want it any other way. I am blessed.

Father's Day 2011

This is my 10th Father's Day without my Daddy. Doesn't seem like it's been a decade since I became an adult orphan. I would hear his voice on the phone, every weekend "Just wonderin' what yer up to" he'd say. Dad usually called on Saturday morns, about 10ish or so. I wouldn't leave my apartment until we spoke.

The last few months of his life, Dad wasn't able to call me, so I called him. Those were bittersweet times. I knew life would soon change as we both knew it. I'm still in a 'change' mode--these years later. Dad would get a kick out of that and just chew on that King Edward Cigar.

In fact, if I showed Dad one of these terra cotta pots I'm trying to perfect, he'd size it up, just kinda nod, then use it as an ashtray for those ashes of said King Edward Cigar. Then he'd tell me to just keep on tryin, 'cause I would get one of these times.

Dad liked to fish, loved his westerns, devoured pineapple malts, put hot sauce on his chit'lins, send me at least a dozen birthday cards, ask me if I caught any Andy Griffith episodes, boast about the Iowa Hawkeyes, sip on scotch and milk when he shouldn't be, pet my cats and they would play with the smoke rings from said King Edward cigar, fry me up pork chops whenever I went back to Iowa and we'd sit at our kitchen table and just talk. Those were the BEST times

Just Dad and me.
What I choose to remember
And blessed my Daddy's spirit dances with me still
Sometime I think I can smell that cigar smoke...