In Memory of Dad

Our dad passed away around this time in 1989.  He had a tough life right from childhood.  This is the eulogy I wrote for him:

To our Dad:

As I sadly sift through your meager earthly possessions, I think:  “Is that ALL there is, after a lifetime?”

So I look at your photo and by your eyes I remember that you were a dreamer.  What grand and wonderful dreams were your goals!  Often impossible, but they carried you on.

Then I reach for your collection of stamps and I recall your taste for adventure.  You took your family to distant shores to better their lives, and you enjoyed the bleak beauty of the Arctic and made it part of your soul.

As I work, I look at my hands, so like your own, and reflect on my father, the worker.  As translator or bookkeeper, lumber mill worker or theater projectionist, painter or educator, you provided for us.

The family plaque on the wall speaks to me of the artist in you.  Throughout your life, whatever you undertook, you did with a flair for beauty, whether it was painting a wall, designing needlework, or hand-writing a birthday message.

Row upon row of books stand respectfully for you, the scholar.  Your hunger to learn was amazing.  We are so proud of your honors achievement in your advanced studies during your last months.

Your diplomas certify your late entry into the honorable teaching profession.  You taught students, but were a teacher in a more universal sense.  How many lives you touched!

Your MLA sent you a birthday message and a commemorative pin.  It arrived on the day you died and you never saw it.  I LAUGHED when I saw it, for you sure gave those politicians a run for their money.  That was our dad, the fighter.  You fought in a major war and you waged many a personal battle, but in the end, I think you were at peace.

And now I look around at ourselves, your children and grandchildren and there I recognize the dream of the dreamer, I see the adventurer and the worker; the artist, the scholar and the teacher, and my heart rejoices in the realization that we, not material goods, but WE are your legacy.