Tammy

MY LOVELY DAD

Over the years, my dad (a deacon of the Catholic Church) has become many things to many people. To his co-workers at the office, he is the dependable man that always completes his task with meticulous detail. To his friends, he is the compassionate voice of reason that always listens and responds with sound advice. To our parish priest, my dad is a best friend during stressful moments. To his community, he is a dedicate deacon and finally, to his family, my dad is the constant example of sacrifice.  All of the above are accurate perceptions of my dad, and when people ask me to define the character of his nature, three short stories come to mind that truly defines who he is.

The first of the three stories takes place during a time very early on in my childhood. This story takes place during the time when I was about a few years old and my parents had enrolled my two sisters and me in piano lessons. Each week after work my dad would take ALL three of us to our afternoon piano lessons back-to-back-to-back. However, when most parents simply dropped of their children my dad actually stayed the entire time to wait. He waited patiently and without complaints for all three of us to finish our lessons. Needless to say I am quite positive that it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience for him but he did this consistently throughout this time in our lives.

My second story takes place when I was twelve. I remember that I really needed access to a color printer to finish up a big school project. The problem was that we just didn’t have a color printer at home.  Of course I came to my dad for a bit of help, and he was more than willing to oblige. His solution was simple. We would simply wait until the last of his co-workers left the office and he would bring me in to utilize the office computer and printer. I think it can be expected that these types of deadline oriented projects always end up taking a little more time to finish then originally anticipated.  Just like the earlier days of our piano lessons my dad simply waited patiently at the office until I was done with my work.

The third story takes place when my sisters and I were older in high school/college. We all needed cars because (a) Houston doesn’t exactly have public transportation and (b) our busy extra-curricular activities. As you can imagine, it’s pretty expensive to insure teenage girls much less give them each a car. Nonetheless, my dad decided to give each of us a reliable New Toyota Camry to drive. What did my dad drive? His vehicle was the old, ratty Dodge minivan that had a broken AC unit. My dad drove this van everyday to the Galleria despite the rush hour traffic jams in the sweaty, humid Houston summer.  My dad definitely made sure we had the best he could give. Once again he was dependable and never complained.

I think many times in this life we have a misconstrued understanding of what true strength really is. Many times society will tell us that strength is how much one can inflict. However, if we study the example that Christ set for us during his Stations of the Cross we begin to understand that true strength in actuality has nothing to do with how much we can inflict upon another. In actuality the opposite rings true. True strength is how much one can endure while progressively staying focused on the ultimate task at hand. During the Stations of the Cross, we see that Jesus never took a backward step nor did he refuse the task at hand. He quietly accepted His cross with humility, patience, and forgiveness.

If you were to simply judge my dad by his physical stature you would think that he was not capable of incredible strength. However, I will tell you that throughout life with my dad, I have personally witnessed him endure incredible odds. Like the three short stories above, my dad has endured many trials and tribulations with patience, understanding and no complaints. If you were to ask me today how I would define my dad I would tell you that he is the constant reminder of true strength in my life. This is certainly the same strength that Christ exemplified as He walked towards His own death for the better good of all of us.