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I wanted to wish all the guys on the forum who are fathers the best of wishes and hopes for a happy and healthy father’s day.
I would like to share a poem I wrote for my Daddy a few years ago. He was a very special stepfather.
Dear Lord,
Take care of this man I call “daddy”
For he took my hand and cared for me.
Teach him to read and write in heaven,
Cause life hasn’t been easy for him , you see.
Folks ofen called Daddy retarded
But that was not at all true.
He was never taught to read or write,
Still it would be hard to fill his shoes.
In my memories I recall a prayer
from a child of three or four.
“Dear Jesus, I need a daddy cause
Mine up and walked out the door.
I hear my mommie cry at night
And sometimes I cry too.
She loves me with all her heart…but…
She is lonely and I don’t know what to do.
You sent this man in answer
to my prayers so long ago.
He touched my life and gave me strength
And lead me down life’s road.
Mama took us off Fenwick Mountain
To a far and distant land.
With patience and her loving ways
She taught us tall to stand.
Daddy earned an honest dollar
Working for the railroad lines.
Thank you ,Jesus, for sending him,
This man so gentle and kind.
Daddy taught us hate builds walls
He took us to your house to pray.
Taught us to believe in ourselves,
And be thankful for each new day.
Then one cold and wintery morning,
In that far and distant land.
Jesus called and mama answered.
“Come join in my heavenly angel band.”
Even tho he really missed her,
He left her with a smile.
He slowely knelt beside her
And whispered”I’ll see you in a while”.
Now the time has come, dear jesus
For daddy’s life on earth to end.
Sent to me direct from heaven
This man I call daddy, my friend.
Take him home to be with mama
To the mountains over there.
There to walk the fields of glory
Now I close my Lord, in prayer.
Written 1995 for a Special Stepfather
Arthur T. Shoulders
Brenda Collins Dillon
Thank you, Brenda. That was beautiful. My father dropped out of school in the 6th grade so he could work full-time and help support his brothers and sisters. He didn’t have book-learning but he taught me things like respect for animals and how to enter the forest without alarming the creatures there. Whenever I watch a squirrel at play or see a flicker, I feel his spirit with me.
peace
Brenda….what a truly wonderful thing to write about a special man….stepdads have a hard road to walk. Looks like yours gave you lots of love.
I would like to join Brenda in wishing all you dads had a great day…yes, I know it’s a day late.
A special note…..Dreaminghawk has done a magnificient job in filling the void my kids felt all these years without a dad….now they know they have someone they can count on…whether I am here or not. Thank you for your love…..forever, Becky
Becky,
Daddy was very special. I said he had a rough time but nobody knowes what that man went through and it didn’t change him or make him resentful.
His mother was murdered when he was less than 6 weeks old. He was taken to the Marion Co. Children’s home in Fairmont,WV where an old man ( age 60) told the ladies that worked at the home that he was somehow related to this baby and took him home. What woman in their right mind would just turn over an infant to a 60 year old man?????
This old Mr. Gregory must have known the family because 10 years later he wrote the sisters and told then he had broken his hip and could no longer care for the boy. Great Uncle Clerance went to Fairmont to bring him back. Clerance found a 10-11 year old WILD boy running around half naked and eatting off the floor with the hound dogs.
Clarence took him home to his sister Emma. It took 6 grown men to place the boy into a tub outside in the yard and give him a bath. Emma had to teach him to cloth himself, eat at the table, and eatting is what changed him. Emma was a great cook so if the boy didn’t do his chores or dress for the day he didn’t get breakfast. He lived with Clarence and Emma til he was 18 years old. He was never sent to school.
Daddy was about 12 years old and had been with Emma and Clarence for a while when they took him to visit his grandparents in Braxton Co. WV . It was while he was there that him and a cousin was walking down a dirt road and a drunkin driver plowed into them knocking daddy through a plate glass window of a filling station /country store. According to what we have been told he layed more dead than alive for almost a year. He had to be taugh to talk, and walk all over again. He had no memory of his past and only knew what his sisters told him.
In 1949 he met mama at church and they married a short time later. Mom saw a hard working man with a good heart but she always said as long as he was in the mountains he would go nowhere. She moved us west to Tacoma ,Washington in 1952.
Daddy got a job with the Burlington Northern/ then Northern Picific Railroad where he worked til he retired in 1976. Not many men could live and go through what he did and come out the better for it. He set an example of never giving up, working hard for an honest dollar, and being just a plain good man that everybody liked. He worked side by side with whites and blacks and we lived in a little house on the edge of the Indian reservation. He loved to eat and his passion was growing roses.
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