Father's Day Thoughts

Mike Dran, 1986 

Today is the day to honor our fathers. In my family, my father was the center of our home. My mother always put him first. He was not demanding or hard to live with in any way. He always supported us and I can never recall a time that he was out of work. He worked hard at his jobs and at home he was always outside working on our houses or fixing something.

 Hazel and Mike Dran, 1942

When my mother became ill in 1978, he took care of her at home the best he could until her death in 2002. Now at 92, he is still working outside in the garage or in his garden. This year he just put in a new circuit breaker box in his house. Wiring it in because his was hit by lightning.

My father and his parents.

My grandfather and grandmother came from Poland in the early 1900s and my father was the youngest of their four children. I never knew my grandmother because she had died before I was born. My grandfather I did know. But he spoke Polish and I could never actually talk to him. Someone always translated for him. He lived at my aunt's house so he would be there when we visited.

My father today!

My father said his parents were not very affectionate toward their children. He had never been hugged until a handyman that lived with them, held him on his lap and would hug him. So my mother's family was exactly the opposite. They were big time huggers and kissers! He said the nearest his father ever came to telling him that he loved him, was once when they were fishing, (after he was grown up) out in the boat, his father looked at him and said, "If anything ever happened to you, I'd kill myself." It makes me sad as I write that, as my parents moved to Florida in 1962, and my grandfather died while we were there.  

 Happy Father's Day to all fathers today! 

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole