FEEL GOOD FRIDAY!!! My Dad!

Hosted by: Erika,  the girl next door grows up 

Welcome to Feel Good Friday! 

Erika had found that a lot of her bloggy friends reading posts about being positive, so she thought she might try her very own meme.  She just wanted everyone to feel good and have some happy thoughts as you begin the weekend.  

It is never too late to join!!! 

 I have posted the prompts here to give you some idea of what this meme is about:

Pick one of these prompts and write about it on your blog!  You can: 

• Just make a list. List 5 things that made you really happy this week. No matter how bad or boring you think your week was, I bet you can find 5 things.  

• Write about something that happened to you this week that really made you smile.  Was it your child, husband, or maybe a complete stranger did to you?

• Write about something that YOU did for someone else that really made them happy or laugh.

• Is there something you treasure so much that every single time you look at it, it brings you happiness?  Post a pic and tell everyone about it.

• Having a hard week and can’t find one good thing about it?  Well then, what is your happy place?  What do you think of that makes you happy? A past vacation?  A childhood memory?  We want to know!

Then head over to 

Erika's at:  the girl next door grows up

and link your blog so everyone can visit and see all about what made you 

Feel Good!!!

Here's what made me feel good this week!! 

My Feel Good!!! Friday for this week actually started last Friday afternoon when one of my best friends from high school sent me this picture.

This is a picture of my dad from 1946, after he had returned home from fighting in the war.  I had never seen this picture, she had found it in an old book about our hometown.  My dad never talked to me about his time in the war, or that he managed a gas station for that matter.  He would have celebrated his 86th birthday just this past Wednesday.

I am the youngest of three children and my sister and brother are both more than 10 years older than me, so I had a totally different childhood than they did.  I remember my dad was a Borden milk man back in the time when milk was delivered to your house, he was an over the road truck driver for awhile, a school bus driver and he and my mom ran a local tavern when I was in junior high and high school.  

But the thing I remember most about my dad was that he was a volunteer firefighter for most of his life.  When he died in on June 12, 1988, just 2 weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he was the Fire Chief of the Columbus, Wisconsin Volunteer Fire Department and had been the chief for many years.  Besides going out on fire and ambulance calls, he was always attending meetings.  He was on several committees and President of Fire Chief organizations, he was very well known and respected.

Fire Training and Education were two of his top priorities, and we didn't know until shortly before he passed away that some of the meetings he was attending were to create, design and bring to life one of his dreams, a comprehensive fire training facility to be part of the nearby technical school.  The center was state of the art then and continues to be today.  The sad thing was that just 15 short days after he died the school was opened and dedicated in his honor.

When my mom passed away a little over 18 months ago, each of us kids took some family photos and I had begun scanning mine into the computer, so that I can make disks for my brother and sister, but also for my kids.  That's the really sad part about being the youngest.  My oldest son was just 3 years old and my oldest daughter not even a year old when their grandpa died.  My youngest children never got to even meet their grandpa, and he would have loved them and been so proud of them as he was of all his grandchildren. The only way my kids have to remember their grandpa is through the stories and the pictures.

This is one of my favorites.  Mom & Dad's Wedding

So because my friend sent me that picture last week, it has reminded me to keep going scanning those pictures and to share them and the stories I can remember with my kids and hopefully my sister and brother will share stories too. 

Our lives were not perfect by any means, and we suffered many struggles but also much joy.  The memories may not all be wonderful, but this man was my hero, my daddy, and I miss him every single day.  I know he is watching over me as is my mom.  I can feel their strength holding me up in the tough times and smiling at us during the good ones.

Thank you Dawn for sending that picture, as I told you, it made my week, my month, my year, my life and definitely my Friday 

Feel Good!!!

After the picture was posted on Facebook, I received many messages, emails and posts by people whose lives were touched by my dad, it went past the lives saved on fire or ambulance calls, my dad had touched and changed the lives of so many that I ever could have imagined.  He was never the type "to toot his own horn" so I guess I am doing that today. I bet he never knew how many people loved and respected him, but this week I got to know about a few.