I have to believe there's a heaven because I can't imagine not hearing the reassuring voices once again of the men in our lives who fathered us, filling our hearts with wisdom, teaching us through example and wiping away our tears with loving words of comfort.
We've been so fortunate in our lifetime to have those strong parental figures who have inspired, mesmerized, entertained us into fits of laughter and met each day with determination, grit and hard work. Not only our fathers but our mother figures equally so.
As we approach Father's Day, and the years have quickly layered, now we look back in time remembering, those incredible parental guides, as we did our mothers in May.
There are times when I feel I can smell the scent of our dad's Old Spice, hear him playing Isle of Capris on the piano, the only song he remembered all the way through and we would beg him to "play it again Dad" as we fell asleep. He was a magician of a different kind and could do this remarkable contortion with his eyebrows, no matter how hard we tried to learn or copy him we just never figured out how to do it but it sure did fascinate us!
Our dad was a "newspaper man" and we were very proud of that. He even interviewed Roy Rogers (for those too young he was a famous cowboy in the old days) and did one of the last interviews with Robert F. Kennedy Senior in Los Angeles just prior to his assassination, having just walked back across the street to his hotel hearing the shots ring out, then having to write a very different story that day.
Dad was a soft spoken man with a dry sense of humour, he loved puns and wrote a little piece for Reader's Digest called Short Shrifts on a regular basis. He loved Hawaii but didn't much like the water which we found so strange since he was aboard a ship during the Second World War as a sergeant in the Army Air Corp in charge of communication.
Even though he and our mom eventually divorced he ended up remarrying to our sweet step mom Gerry, a top secret stenographer who worked for Lockheed and they had many beautiful years together.
I fondly remember my father-in-law, Ed Buck, at this time also, a man I greatly admired and loved. Coming from a divorced family as a young teen of 16 just moving to Canada in 1971, the Buck family quickly became a second home to me, showing family life and unity in a way we had never had the chance to experience. As years passed I often sought out Dad Buck's advice and counsel, as many in our valley did over the years.
So proud to call him 'Dad' also. He danced the first dance at my graduation with me, such a smooth dancer, an elegant yet hard working man who along with 'Mom' (Eva) Buck helped so many people with such compassion in our valley as they supported each other through life and a marriage of over 60 years. Mom 'B' was a food healer, feeding others was part of her natural way to make things better.
Two other important role models for us were our Aunt Hettie and Uncle Bob Miller, well known in Wels Gray Country for their nursery of beautiful flowers, trees, study of nature through film and journalling. They were our 'sanctuary' and their nearly 200-acre Mountain Terrace was our outdoor learning centre for our whole lives since birth. Uncle Bob filled many ladies arms full of flowers in our valley, known as a sort of Johnny Appleseed, who could grow anything, anywhere in the most rugged terrain. There's a circle of peonies at Dr. Helmcken Hospital in Clearwater, his peonies, lovingly bred and named for our Aunt Hettie and cousin Anne.
So on these special days of honouring parents I feel extremely blessed to have many memories tucked away in my heart and soul, gifts of remembrance to cherish beyond space and time. I hope you are pulling out your memory treasures as you honour your special parental guides.
Happy Day to all of the parents out there, and to those having to take on both roles at times in their own lives.
If you have a story, idea, photo or letter to the editor you'd like to share, please feel free to contact me at editor@clearwatertimes.com or hettie.buck@starjournal.net
