Fond Memories

The other day I was having an email "conversation" with a friend.  And, as with most polite conversation, we had been discussing the weather.  I mentioned that any snow we had had was now gone.... temps rose - rain came - snow went.  I said it was the one thing my father disliked about Kingston - they never got any snow.

My friend said "No disrespect intended; if your Dad liked the cold, snowy winters he wasn't playing with a full deck in that scenario."   and he made me laugh.  

A flood of warm memories came streaming back..... my dad was an odd mix of white collar executive and farmer.  He loved nothing more than to be outside digging in the dirt at the crack of dawn - OR - working up a sweat shoveling snow (in La Belle Province - Quebec).  His driveway and sidewalk was the talk of the neighbourhood.  The snow banks were squared off .... the driveway and sidewalk down to pure pavement.  He would be up shoveling before the sun was up ........... there was not one flake of snow on the driveway when he left for work.

He believed in hard work - physical work.  

He also believed in family....... 

And old school values........

And his word was final......

He was a difficult man to live with - truth be told.  There were lots of times I was terrified of him....lots of times that I struggled with the rules he insisted I live by... 

BUT there were times that the love I felt for this man just bubbled up and spilled over.

There were all those Christmas eves when sleep eluded me and he would come up to my room and crawl into bed with me and we'd watch the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree down in the living room together - until I fell asleep.

I remember my wanting a dog - and his refusal....... and then his "well ok but NO lap dog" and the huge standard poodle he bought me... that used to curl up in his lap (and only HIS lap) whenever she got scared - especially of Christmas trees.

There was the time I wanted a tree planted in the front yard of our new home... and he drove down from Kingston .. took me to the garden center .. bought me a tree that was SO big it didn't fit in the trunk.......... brought it home and planted it in the front yard..... washed up and drove back to Kingston - all in the same day...... so I would have my tree in the front yard.

There was the Christmas I found him lying under the Christmas tree with my eldest daughter who was all of 3 or 4 years of age - telling her stories about the fairies dancing in the tree..... or the year he built a doll house for her - a house that took him a good year to build - that was perfect in every detail - right down to the Christmas tree in it's living room that had working lights.

Fond memories of an amazing man.............