Dad, his stroller and Sophia the cat!
SM: Of
all the members of my family...this is the one I admired almost the
best. I’ve asked his Daughter to paint us a written portrait of her
Father, Frank...my Brother In Law.
Enjoy:
Laura writes....
My dad had three names, Ted, Frank and Zeke. He was born in 1920 and
lived to be 92. His parents were immigrants from the Ukraine, but
totally transitioned into American life and shared little with their
children about the old country.
In
lieu of working on his father's dairy farm in upstate NY, Dad chose to
join the Navy when he turned 18, he was sent to the Pacific to work on
war planes.
He
married my Mom quite impulsively during WWII and spent their honeymoon
in Saipan. Dad went on to become an engineer and start a family.
After
about fifteen years, mom and dad had me and my brother soon after. My
brother, Mike was diagnosed as Downs syndrome when he was two to three
years old, both mom and dad were dedicated to his care. Dad was
Mike's favorite, able to communicate very little, he loved taking dad's
arm and leading him to the frig to get some orange juice.
Dad
was a very nice, quiet and patient man. Don't get me wrong, when
discipline was called for, he was up to task. I remember when I was
six, he caught me and my friends jumping on the bed (which I had been
told many times 'not to do'). He calmly told us to 'get off the bed' an
walked away. A couple of hours later, I walked into my room, and there
was the broken wooden bed slate hanging prominently on the bedroom
wall...life lesson learned..."own" your actions.
Later
in life, Dad took care of Mom as she grew ill and he worked very hard
as we know she was not an easy person to please. I was fortunate to have
Dad move to my city when Mom passed and he lived in our house the last
two years of his life. Dad loved traffic (he commuted to downtown LA
for years and one of his favorite things included asking me to wheel his
walker to the main road at evening rush hour to watch the traffic), he
also loved baseball, Cheetos, ice cream and red wine.
Dad
had a way of brightening everyone's day, everyone speaks of his 'nice
smile'. We would walk into any doctor office or hospital and the
'world' would just light up with his smile. He had a positive nature,
he was always able to have a 'half-full' attitude when the Dodgers lost a
game. He spent his last year in much pain, but chuckled at the antics
of our cats and dogs at the house. His favorite was Sophia the kitty,
no matter how bad he felt, when she jumped up on his walker, he mustered
enough strength to give her a 'ride' around the house. Dad has been
gone for two years, I still have his walker with the Dodger license
plate on the front, it will be the last thing I part with. Taking care
of an elderly parent is one of the hardest jobs in the world, I consider
it a privilege to have been able to spend time with Dad and to have
given him a little 'help' when he needed it. Miss him.
Laura
Thanks Laura. You brightened my readers lives also.
sm
stanmajor@aol.com
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