Happy Birthday Dad!
Today is my Father’s Birthday. Dad would have been 84 today. He passed away last April 17, 2007… “prepared to welcome death not as a grim tyrant but as a kind messenger, sent to translate us from this imperfect to that all perfect, glorious and Celestial Lodge where the Supreme Grand Master of the Universe forever presides”.
On this day I’d like to recollect Dad as I had known him.
My Dad is a Gentleman of the Old School, a strict disciplinarian, a man of few words, prim and proper and a bit uptight. He makes it a point that we respect his authority as Master of the House by observing the House Rules he laid down for us. We grew up with these rules and there was never a time when anyone of us questioned it or challenged his authority.
The only occasion where we can have a lengthy conversation with our Dad were during dinner. And at the dinner table my Dad was always the first to open a topic for conversation. We the siblings can buzz with each other on the side but we don’t start a focused conversation on the table unless Dad started it. We can find time to talk with him man to man only if he’s not busy, and more often than not he was always, busy. His last years gave us the only oppurtunity to have long chats with him, and I enjoyed every moment of it.