Father’s Day

He was only twenty and we had been dating less than three months when my world stopped turning and everything went sideways. He probably should’ve run screaming from the crazy he couldn’t have even imagined would take over the next twenty years of his life. He didn’t, in fact he (not that he needed too) but he proved just what a beautiful man he truly was.

Following daddy’s stroke and too long stay in the hospital he was transferred to the rehab center and after a bit we were allowed a home visit. It was the end of the day and we were having an early dinner before taking daddy back. They were sitting in the den watching tv when mom said “Dinner’s ready, come eat.” My back was turned as I finished filling drinks when momma grabbed my arm and pulled me towards her so that I could also watch the scene that was unfolding before her eyes.

Neither of us thought about the fact that daddy couldn’t just get up and come to the table, but Craig did. Without being asked and without asking us what he should do, he got up and helped daddy wrap his arms around his neck while he grabbed him around his middle and transferred him to his wheelchair. It was nothing to him, it was instinctual, but to mom and I it was one of the sweetest moments we would never forget. “You have to marry that man!” mom said, and while I had never doubted that I would, I realized with a renewed clarity that I would chase after him and club him down cavewoman style, if need be, to make him mine!

Twenty years and a thousand memories later we were at Methodist hospital, daddy had been transferred there due to aspiration pneumonia, we were at the end though we didn’t necessarily know that then. The nurses wanted to get daddy up and into the wheelchair and he said no, he needed his wheelchair not the hospital one. We explained to him that since he was transferred there we didn’t have it and it was still back home. He didn’t care, he looked at me and said, “Call Craig’.

“Daddy, Craig’s at work!”

“Call Craig,” he repeated.

I stepped out of the room while the nurses, momma and Melissa all argued with this stubborn man that we could all get him out of bed and into the wheelchair, but he refused.

Craig had been playing the part of mom and dad to our three kids while I practically lived at the hospital, he was currently at work trying to catch up when I called, “We have an issue…”, I said.

There was no hesitation on his part, there was no issue for that man, he responded with “I’ll be there soon.” and that was it. He left work (in Houston) drove 30 minutes to Friendswood to pick up the wheelchair and drove back to Houston. When he walked into that hospital room daddy smiled and he finally relaxed. Craig was there, that’s all he needed in that moment, once again I watched my (now husband) lift my father into his wheelchair.

Rather daddy really only trusted Craig right then or it was his way of saying goodbye we’ll never know, it was the last time Craig would ever complete that loving act of service for my father. Daddy loved Craig, he was the son he never had and the fact that he trusted him so completely was something I never took for granted.

There were a thousand moments that I watched between my father and my husband that live in my head, I cherish every single one of them. Two very different men with very different parenting styles that shared one common thing, they both loved me and I love them both madly.

Happy Father’s Day to my daddy who I miss every single day, I love you A LOT!

Craig, Daddy knew you were the one from the very beginning and you never stopped proving to him that you would take care of not only his youngest daughter but her sister and his wife as well. He knew that as long as you were around his girls would be ok. Of all the gifts you could have given him that was probably the best.

Happy Father’s Day to the most beautiful, loving, caring, selfless man that I get to call MINE, and I didn’t even have to club him over the head!