Father’s day is just around the corner.

      This is my father.  He hasn’t been here for a long time.  He died in November of 1995, but he was gone for quite a few years before then.  Dad had several strokes, one finally damaged his brain enough to put him in a nursing home. He was to spend quite a few years locked in the prison of his damaged mind.

     When I was a little girl he used to take me with him to run errands.  He would tease me and say I was his favorite.  I never thought I was, but considered it sweet of him to say so.  I’m sure when he had any of the other four sisters out on excursions he would tell them the same thing.

     For as long as I can remember an oil portrait of him as a young minister preaching a sermon hung in our home.  That painting a few other items made any new house we moved to our home.  He, on many an occasion caught me staring at his portrait, it was on more than one occasion that he told me one day the painting would be mine. 

     Dad is long gone and so is my mother.  The dear to my heart painting is lost to me too.  However, he lives on in my heart,  and forever he will have residence there.  There’s nothing in the world that can take my precious memories of him away. 

     If your father is still around, if he was a good man, hug him and tell him how much you love him.  You won’t regret it.

     You all have a good one!