My dad will never get to see me be a mom

I was a daddy's girl! Where he went, I went whether he liked it or not. If he was mowing, I was mowing,  if he was fishing, I was fishing, if he was cutting down a tree, I was, well, I'd run and hide (no telling where that thing would land), then I'd be right there with him piling up the wood. That was until my parents divorced when we were 12, and things changed. My dad wasn't perfect, nobody is. 

He was diagnosed with Huntington's chorea 10 years ago. He handled it very bravely. It is a horrible disease that I wouldn't wish on anyone! 

Our 1st snowman! Don't laugh, we lived in Louisiana. We didn't know what we were doing. haha

My dad loved to tell stories, and he was good at it. He had a way of telling the story that recreated it for you. It was like he was seeing it play out in his mind while he was telling it. The problem was he liked to tell the same stories over and over and over! One of his favorites was about the time I caught a cat with a catfish! Yep, you read that right, I caught a cat with a catfish, and I wasn't happy about it. I was about 5 years old fishing in our pond, I got a bite and was a little excited when I was reeling it in. The little catfish I had on my line went flying into the air, and our cat happened to be near by and grabbed it! She took off with it while I'm standing there in shock wondering what to do. I quickly decided to reel it back in which caused the cat to tumble down the hill she was running up! It was very funny and we have shared many laughs about that story. We certainly did some crazy things together! He also liked to tell the story about knee boarding behind a horse in a creek in Missouri. That was a whole lot of fun! He would leave out the part about me stepping on a broken beer bottle. I was about 13 years old my foot was bleeding profusely and I was probably crying. He picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and carried me up an embankment and out of the creek to take care of my bleeding foot. 

I have my daddy's green eyes

Wendi and Dad skiing together

He was a kind hearted man, but he could have one heck of a temper. Not that we ever did anything to bring that out in him when we were young! Our bus driver never called him to tell him that his three were the worst three on the bus. That definitely never happened. He was an amazing water skier, and he taught us to ski very early. My twin, Wendi was able to get up on her own when we were five! I didn't get the hang of it until we were about seven. I don't have many pictures of my dad because they were lost during hurricane Katrina along with everything else of his. The picture of me shooting the gun with my dad was taken just before the hurricane. He decided to bring me the guns he would want to hand down to me after he was diagnosed with Huntington's and PTSD. I'm so glad he did that, because they would've been lost as well. 

My dad served our country in the US Navy during Vietnam. I don't know much about that time, because he didn't talk about it. He did share some stories with me after I got home from Iraq. He has friends from that time in the Navy that just simply tell me that they owe my dad their life. That they were young, and he saved them.

Since he donated his body to science in the hopes of furthering the research of Huntington's disease, there was not casket or funeral home involved. I wanted my dad to have the military honors he earned. So we held a memorial service for him at Chalmette Battlefield where a Navy honor guard provided him with those honors. I now have his folded flag as a tribute to him and his selfless service. I am thankful for the Navy for providing him with those honors. They did not do the gun salute at my request. That would've been too much for me, and the battlefield wouldn't allow it. They did provide a bugler to play Taps, and folded the flag which was primarily what I wanted for my dad. There is an interesting story to the history of Taps click here to read it. 

I've known my father was dying for years now, but I still can't believe he's gone. He suffered tremendously, especially at the end. I know he is in a better place now. He was able to build a strong relationship with God and believed in the grace provided to us through Jesus Christ when he died on the cross for our sins. I take comfort in this knowledge. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18