The Person I Admire

There are several people that I admire. The one that I admire the most is my Dad. I am so blessed that I got to know him for twelve short years. He taught me so much, lessons that I will take with me for the rest of my life.

My Dad was admired at work. He was very respected there as well. He always listened to the people that worked for him and tried to find solutions to any of their problems. The people that he reported to valued his opinion on things. He was extremely hard working and dedicated.

The one person that he loved as much as us kids was my Mom. They were a great team and did everything together. They would dance and sing with each other and always had a great time. No matter what my Mom cooked for dinner, my Dad loved it. They also had a secret wink that they would do. When they would wink at each other, it meant that they loved each other and everything would be fine. In all the years of living with them, I never saw them fight.

We looked and looked at land and houses for a very long time before we choose a house in Fort Worth. It had everything we wanted. I can remember my Mom and Dad moving stuff in. My Dad was so strong and he did most of the heavy lifting by himself. My Dad starting slurring his speech right after we moved to Fort Worth. I don't think any of us kids even noticed it but my Mom did. She talked him into seeing a doctor. One doctor lead to another doctor and then another. They were told it was a motor neuron disease. More doctors and test followed and finally they were given a diagnosis.

When I was told that my Dad had ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, it was the worst day of my life. My Mom took me and my younger sister for a drive and said she needed to talk to us. We both immediately thought something had happened to our Great Grandmother. She let us know that Great Grandma was fine. She parked the car and got into the back of the car with us. She held both of our hands as she told us the worst news possible. Our Dad had an incurable disease which would eventually take his life.

My parents have made many friends throughout their lives. One friend knew that my Dad wanted to go to Africa on an exotic game hunt. We knew that would be too hard on him so our friend hooked him up at a local ranch. My Mom took him to this ranch to go hunting. He ended up shooting a European Red Stag that weighed over 500 pounds. He was so excited. We later took my Dad back to this ranch and we all went fishing. Some of my best memories are from the ranch where we had our last vacation with my Dad.

My Dad passed away on July 22, 2009. I remember that morning like it was yesterday. My Dad actually passed away from a blot clot and he just dropped his head and was gone. In a way we are all thankful that he didn't suffer any more than he already had. ALS is a terrible disease that stripped my Dad of all of his