In the eightieth year so much has been said
a son, husband, Dad, Pappa and many
fond memories of this life that you’ve led.
Mortality is not to think about today
eat cake and toast your life without care
We’re all here to make merriment and cheer.
Do you feel different at 80 I wonder? Tired perhaps?
Does your memory sometimes experience a lapse?
Do you feel God’s blessings surround you each day?
We can hear it in your heart that you feel this way.
Let’s look back with honesty and grace
We’re lucky to hold you Dad in this important space.
A Wife! Oh, what a wife you picked!
She could diaper, clean and pay
the bills with pinache,
Jesus Mary and Joseph,
she could even save a little bit of cash.
Up to three jobs you’d take to keep us in shoes
while we slept in our beds, unaware of your dues.
Trips to Websters, tramping up those stairs.
I remember Converse sneakers, and so many pairs.
We were a crazy bunch of six, I don’t need to tell you that
you and Mom worked so hard, to make a home that would last.
So hard to image, that it’s now so far in the past.
A fond memory I have of stopping at Frosty’s on our way home,
a towering vanilla was always my cone.
Fishing was always a seasonal delight
You’d line us all up, and keep us in sight.
Lines mangled and tangled and me with the worms,
bare chested Tilly, always on my terms.
Girls don’t fish you said, I must digress
I remember a certain Catfish
you know the rest.
Borrowing the car, you’d hand me the keys
I’d take it to parties in the woods
beating it up as I pleased.
It’s the only car I have, you’d say with faith
thinking that I’d treat it with respect and honor
When Becky left the roach in it, I was in total horror.
Children are now grown with children of their own,
while you make room on visits, or save a room to call home.
The door is always open for when I need your help,
I remember crying at the table, thinking I might melt.
You’d keep harm away, while letting me earn my mistakes,
How many times I wish, for goodness sakes,
I’d make good decisions,
but I realize our combined journey needs no revisions.
You are honest and caring and
enough has been said,
consider this poem my honor to you,
for a life well lead.
Thanks for being there for me
and leaving me not in need.
Take today for yourself
You deserve it indeed!
