LEONARD

Yesterday, I wrote a Facebook post and introduced it with a somewhat negative remark about my father's lack of investment in my life.  That comment has bothered me for the last twenty-four hours.  So, I've decided to balance the scales.

My father was born in 1912, and died in 1992 (almost 80).  That means he was a witness to both World Wars, the Spanish flu and the Great Depression.  

He was raised in a small home on 7th Avenue in New Brighton, PA, with his mother, father and five sisters.  His father was an alcoholic.  His mother took in other people's laundry to be able to feed her family.  

He attended school through the eighth grade and then quit.  He lied about his age and was hired at Townsend Company (as a nail-maker) when he was fifteen (around 1927).  He worked for them forty-nine years.  I never remember him missing a day of work.  

On August 17, 1934, he married Hazel Walton.  They took up housekeeping in a home on Mt. Washington in Beaver Falls, PA, that was given to them by Hazel's mother - with the agreement that she would be able to live there with them until her death.  Mrs. Walton was apparently a woman of means since she gave each of her three girls homes on Mt. Washington.  [I never heard my father say a mean word about Mrs. Walton.]

My brother, Ira, and I recently talked about our dad and realized the providence of God in his life.  He was hired right before the Great Depression and apparently worked through that period unaffected.  My sister, Jeannette, was born in 1937, and my brother, Ira, was born in 1940 - both during the Depression!  

My sister, Beverly, came along on today's date, July 25, 1944.  I'm the only baby-boomer in our family, being born in 1952.  

My father was a Christian man who took an extremely active role in the New Brighton Free Methodist Church.  

• Class Leader (many years)
• Trustee (many years)
• Secretary of the Official Board (many years of hand-written minutes)
• Sunday School teacher (boys and later, adults)
• Delegate to Annual Conference (many years)
• Rochester District Campground Trustee (many years)
• Rochester District Secretary
• Member of the Pittsburgh Conference Stationing Committee (over twenty-five years)
• Member of the Pittsburgh Conference Board of Ministerial Education and Guidance (over twenty-five years)
• Pittsburgh Conference Delegate to the Free Methodist General Conference (five times)

Some things I remember about him:

1. He read his Bible every evening in his bedroom.
2. He knelt beside his bed and prayed every night before sleeping.
3. When our family gathered, before anyone left, he would gather us all in the living room where we would all get on our knees and he would pray over us.  

If my dad had a deficiency, it was in showing affection.  Feel free to read another blog article where I talk more about this ["I Taught My Dad To Hug" April 27, 2012].  In spite of this, I have memories:

• I have half-a-dozen memories of him taking me out to play catch - almost always on a Sunday afternoon which must have really bothered my Sabbatarian mom!
• I remember accompanying him when I was about seven to buy some trees and plant them in our yard.
• When we went camping - which we did for nearly two weeks every summer - he would lift me into the car roof carrier and let me load it with wood for our campfires.
• Occasionally, when we were camping, he would play with me in the shallow waters of the lake.
• When I was in college, my brother and I (along with a few other family members) put a new roof on his house.  It was a good time!
• Once, while I was in high school, he took me to a Pitt football game.  Remarkably, they were playing Navy!  Little did we know that I would later have a Midshipman son doing push-ups down on that field...
• He bought a second car when I was sixteen and made it almost fully available to me!
• He paid for a year of my college.

He was NEVER mean or harsh with me!  He was fair!  He was a kind and generous man.  He loved and served the Lord!  He was admired by his larger family.  My mom adored him and partnered with him to make him a better man.  He was a good provider and protector.  

I honor him today and am sorry that I put him in poor light in my post yesterday.  

Thank You, Lord, for my Dad!  Thank You for his faithfulness and for his devotion to You and Your Church!  Thank You that he loved my Mom!  Thank You for the tremendous advantages I've had in my life because I am his son!  I know he's with You today and I rejoice that someday soon, I'll see him (and my Mom) again!  Amen.