These are the father's in my life...
My father, Guadalupe Corpus...
This will be the second Father's Day I'll be missing my dad. He passed away June 11, 2010. I think about my Dad everyday....all day lately, since my mom's illness. Dad's passing away has brought many revelations for me.
The pictures above has been the latest. I didn't know quite where I fit in, in my family that is. I didn't "see" myself in my parents or siblings.(Physically or emotionally...there was a time I thought I was adopted.) I thought I looked like my Grandma Tomasa but I looked at her picture at mom's house just the other day and found I looked nothing like her. No one has ever said you look like so and so, well maybe my mom...but I don't see it. To my surprise I found the two pictures above very similar. Wow! I look like my Dad. Duh! Where have I been? I realized....I'm the most like my Dad, temper included.
Last week my brother and I went through Dad's things. We found journals with notes, meetings, names, and numbers. He kept minutes of any discussions he thought were important. Same way I do. I didn't know it but he was a good bookkeeper, too. So am I. It made me smile.
Thank you, Daddy, for your gifts. Your gift love for reading, your love of family, love for the unknown, for your "socialness", for teaching me what true faith is, let God be the judge, not me. I love you...miss you.
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I was also very lucky to have a wonderful, beautiful father-in-law, whom I love very much.
Ralph P. Garza
[acquiring photo]
Gosh, I loved him. Thank you for all the time we spent together. We would talk politics, Edinburg history, and his childhood; I liked his childhood stories the best. Miss you, Dad.
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Then there was my grandfather, Amado Lopez, Sr. My grandpa had a handlebar mustache. He smoked cigarettes.
When I would kiss grandpa, I could smell the cigarette smoke on his mustache. Don't ask me why but I liked that smell...the feel and smell would give me warm fuzzies. When I met Ralph, he had a mustache...and he smoked. I remember how I would get butterflies in my stomach when he kissed me...and the warm fuzzies.
I told Ralph that's why I fell in love with him...he reminded me of my grandfather, the smoke, the mustache and no one else loved me like my grandfather...
Thanks Grandpa, for making me feel special, only, you, made all my cousins feel special, too. After you passed away, we all thought each of us was your favorite grandchild...we were!!! I love you and miss you, too.
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I saved the best for last...
My husband and father of our children, Ralph F. Garza.
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| Sam likes Daddy's mustache, too! |
My hubby, whose buttons I can push, makes everything all right, messes up, and never gives up...Happy Father's Day.
We've seen it all and been through so much. Thank you for loving me when I had Bell's Palsy. Even though my face fell off the map, you loved me even more. When we had Sam and I went back in the hospital you held the fort alone with 2 toddlers and a 3-day old. You've been at every birth, first everything, football game, competition, track meet, practices of all kinds, band concerts, open school nights - anything that involved any of your daughters. When it came to college, you even sent me back to school, too...and even when the girls were all grown up and living at home...you'd call home before we'd leave the restaurant to see if you could take something home for them.
You've done an awesome job, Ralph F. Garza. I love you...Happy Father's Day.
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TO ALL THE FATHERS IN THE WORLD - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!...today and everyday!
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