Ascension : News From The Grotto - Thought Of The Week
Submitted by The Islander (Shari Parkhill) 22.06.2006 (Article Archived on 06.07.2006)

I’d like to wish all the fathers on Ascension a very happy Father’s Day.

Father’s Day

            I’d like to wish all the fathers on Ascension a very happy Father’s Day.  Today is a special day when we pay homage to the special men who have helped to shape our lives.  The fathers, husbands, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, sons, and friends; when we think about the men in our lives, we can remember what they have taught us, the examples they have been for us.

            My father was a special man, a very intellectual and reserved man, who nonetheless cherished his children in many special ways.  He was a librarian who attended annual conventions all across the country.  Unlike his colleagues who hopped on a plane, my father always drove to these conventions, with my brother, myself, and several cousins tagging along.  My dad traded his nice hotel room in for a tent in a local campground.  While he was attending lectures and meetings during the day, we children had all sorts of adventures. 

            There was the time in the Rocky mountains where we headed out on two person bikes along the trails, ending up lost and cutting across the very posh golf course at Jasper Park Lodge.  You can imagine the looks that little escapade earned us from the snooty golfers.  And the time it was so windy that we decided to try to light an old fashioned Coleman stove inside the tent.  We’d spent so much time trying to pump it up and light it in the wind that when we touched the match to it inside, you can imagine the whoosh as it ignited.  We’re still not sure how we didn’t set the tent alight!

            There was the night we broke the tent poles trying to put the tent up -isn’t there a saying about too many cooks spoiling the broth?  Imagine a crew of eager, but not too coordinated kids trying to help put up a brand new tent!  We spent the night in a picnic shelter with only half walls,  no doors, while listening to the bears rooting around in the garbage bins just outside! 

The stories go on and on.  Even now, many years later, when my cousins and I get together, someone invariably says…”remember when…?” and the reminiscing begins.   My cousin Martha still gets teased about sleeping through some of the most breath-taking scenery we’ve ever seen in the Rockies.  She slept draped over the hump on the floor in the back seat!  Only a kid could do that! 

I’m sure that everyone has their own special memories of time spent with their father and grandfathers.  Summers spent at my grandparents house were equally special.  These memories last a lifetime.  We’ve learned how to be the people we are through the influences of our parents, and the other special adults who have been so much a part of our lives. 

I urge everyone who can, to remember their fathers today with a visit or a phone call.  My father passed away in 2002, after a long, terrible illness that robbed him of his memory.  He left this world surrounded by his three children, one of his grandchildren and his loving wife.   A week before he died, I spent a few hours with him talking about all the wonderful adventures and how much I appreciated them.  Although I thought that he couldn’t understand what I was saying, I felt that I had to tell him what it had meant to me.  When it was time for me to leave and drive the eight hours back to my home, he looked right at me and told me he loved me.  This was a man who hadn’t uttered an intelligible word in ages.   I felt that this was a gift from God to me.  Mine to my father was holding his hand as he left this world to be with God a week later.   

            So those who can, tell your fathers how much they mean to you.  For the rest of us, let us remember our fathers with a prayer of thanks.  And for the other fathers we know, it’s a good time to let them know how much they mean to us as well.  And on this special day to honour fathers, let us honour the Father who sent these special men into our lives, and remember to thank and praise Him for all the gifts in our lives, every day. 

God bless all the fathers of the world.