I distinctly remember my Dad getting frustrated in trying to help me with my bookkeeping homework in high school. I am not sure how I ended up in the business curriculum instead of college prep. I clearly was not cut out for it.
More importantly, it is healing to think of all the ways my Dad encouraged me in my writing and photography.
He kept a handful of my writings from elementary school. He provided a camera for me at a young age and set a good example of documenting our childhood with his own SLR camera.
When I started writing a blog as an adult, he printed out my many blog posts and kept them in a binder. He made a copy of the handwritten prayer I read for a Thanksgiving dinner.
He often remarked that my photography was better than his, but I think he was probably much better at the technical aspects of getting a good exposure with a camera that required manual metering.
And he extended to me the invitation of writing obituaries for Mom and him. He mentioned it often and suggested I should write it ahead of time because perhaps I wouldn't be in a good frame of mind to do so when it was needed.
When I knew Mom's passing was imminent, I began thinking about it, but didn't write it until after she passed. Dad often remarked to me how much better it was than so many others he had read. He never again mentioned writing his ahead of time, he was confident it would be good.
What a privilege to be entrusted to effectively capture the essence of one’s life and to honor ninety plus years of living in a few paragraphs.
Thank you Dad, for all the ways you encouraged me in these things.
From the last lines of his obituary...
"The story-teller has fallen silent. His many years of family record keeping have been passed on to the next generation. And another of the “Greatest Generation” has passed on, with the invitation to those who follow to carry on the good fight."
