Happy Birthday, Pop!
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I can't begin to tell you what it means to me that you are my Dad. Jeff, Jill and I all have our father's eyes. Jill and I have your hair. And sometimes I wish you had kept the hair!
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I think Jill does too!
But when I look at the things I love, I see you... I see your influence. The music I love, the way I celebrate the holidays, my love for baking, my determination to play fair even when others don't.
I can't separate what I've learned from you from what I've inherited! I can pack a car trunk like nobody's business and when someone asks me how I do it, I tell them.. I'm the daughter of an engineer!
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You have a sense of humor that can come as a surprise and it's a delight to hear you laugh)
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I love that I still hear traces of Pittsburgh in your voice, even tho it's been 50 years since you lived there.
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I love your intelligence and your curiosity. I love that you get involved in new things all the time. I think I get that from you, too. I love that you've discovered what a talent you have for building things--bookshelves, a desk, a bunk bed and the most amazing dressers and nightstands. Gustav Stickley would drool over your work!
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I love the example you've set for all of us, Dad. Loyalty, faithfulness, even in the face of extremely trying life events. )
Planning ahead--something our entire generation could have taken a few lessons in! You defined success for yourself and you accomplished so much in the business world. You cared about the job you did and the people who worked for and with you. You put human relationships before business considerations and not everyone would say that was wise. But they're wrong.
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That's what I appreciate most of all, Dad, your kindness, your compassion and your strength. You have been thru things that I don't even want to imagine. I can't know the pain you've lived with all these years but you've never flinched from life. You carried responsiblities that really weren't yours to carry--your own dad, other family members, all of us. You've worried about us and you have done all you could to help us out, to have the best lives possible. And you're still doing that, today.
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Age is just a state of mind and years are only ways to keep score. You are such a gift to me, Dad. You've taught me so much and given me so much and loved me so much. I am so glad that you stuck around!
Much love on the 80th anniversary of the day you were born.
Pamela Jean