My dad, without a doubt. He passed when I was 11, so I've been more than half my life without him. I'm super close with mom, but I was always my father's favorite. He gave me a love of the outdoors and animals. He showed me how to be a good person. He was a guard at the prison and would get to know the prisioners. Most of them were good people, just had made a few bad choices along the way. It was a low security prison so its not like there were ppl there for murder.. usually it was stuff like DUIs, drugs, or small offenses. Often if the prisioners told my dad it was their kids bday, at Christmas, etc- dad would go out and buy a little something for them to give their family, never asking for any repayment. On Saturdays when they had to do trash pickup along the roadsides, dad would get out and walk the road with them. All the other guards would just sit on the bus.
Its odd, b/c I know I still have men out there looking out for me, though I don't know who they are. I had a guy one time offer to put a new door on my bronco for free (the old one was bashed in and busted window). When I ask mom about him, mom said tht the guy used to be one of your dad's prisoners. More than once I have had someone come up and tell me hi, and when I give them an odd look, they just smile and say "i knew your dad, he was a good man". I just smile and agree.
I guess if I had one more day with him, I would like to spend a day out in his boat, getting to know him and his past. B/c I was so young when he died, I feel like I didn't learn enough about him, and he never got to pass on all of his life knowledge. |