HAPPY FATHER'S DAY ROBERT McCALL!
My father died suddenly of a heart attack in January 1998. I was in Cuba, covering Pope John Paul II's inaugural visit for television, when I received the shocking phone call. He had been driving alone near his home in Tampa Florida when he apparently felt chest pains, pulled over to the side of the road and died. It was a shock for all of us, losing him so suddenly and just when he seemed to be enjoying his life.
My dad was an honorable man who worked hard serving in the United States Air Force. A job that sent our family globetrotting every three to four years. We bounced from Germany to California, to Florida to Germany to Kansas to Florida, to California then back to Florida. My head still spins when I think about it. Duty also called my dad away from us. He spent one year in Thailand, one year in Vietnam and one year in Korea. I remember missing him terribly and not really understanding why he had to go away for so long. Since my German mother didn't drive, his absence was a real challenge for our family and it created a lot of stress for him.
Honest and straight laced, he was a friendly guy who never knew a stranger, but who always kept a tight reign on me and my siblings. His youthful rebellion after his parent's deaths educated him in what he would call "the school of hard knocks." So he wasn't about to let us make the same mistakes that he had made.
As a young teen I would often argue with him and he'd always tell me,
"Mary Lou you have more baloney in you than Carter's got liver pills." Somehow, he knew too much and I couldn't get away with anything. So I simply didn't try.
I have many vivid memories of our lives together, but I am perhaps most touched and surprised by his tender compassion toward my mother when she was suffering for so long with breast cancer. They had shared a pretty volatile relationship, but in the end, he served her with gentleness and unconditional love and she in turn humbly accepted his offering. It was a great example for me and a living witness to the sacrament of marriage and the vows, "In sickness and in health, 'til death do we part."
As I think about him today, he was a great example of prayerful perseverance when the going got rough and loyalty to the cause even when faced with the seemingly impossible. Time has a way of telling us the truth about our loved ones and truthfully, my dad accomoplished so much more in this life, than he was ever given credit for. And my siblings and I have been the beneficiaries!
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!
My dad was an honorable man who worked hard serving in the United States Air Force. A job that sent our family globetrotting every three to four years. We bounced from Germany to California, to Florida to Germany to Kansas to Florida, to California then back to Florida. My head still spins when I think about it. Duty also called my dad away from us. He spent one year in Thailand, one year in Vietnam and one year in Korea. I remember missing him terribly and not really understanding why he had to go away for so long. Since my German mother didn't drive, his absence was a real challenge for our family and it created a lot of stress for him.
Honest and straight laced, he was a friendly guy who never knew a stranger, but who always kept a tight reign on me and my siblings. His youthful rebellion after his parent's deaths educated him in what he would call "the school of hard knocks." So he wasn't about to let us make the same mistakes that he had made.
As a young teen I would often argue with him and he'd always tell me,
"Mary Lou you have more baloney in you than Carter's got liver pills." Somehow, he knew too much and I couldn't get away with anything. So I simply didn't try.
I have many vivid memories of our lives together, but I am perhaps most touched and surprised by his tender compassion toward my mother when she was suffering for so long with breast cancer. They had shared a pretty volatile relationship, but in the end, he served her with gentleness and unconditional love and she in turn humbly accepted his offering. It was a great example for me and a living witness to the sacrament of marriage and the vows, "In sickness and in health, 'til death do we part."
As I think about him today, he was a great example of prayerful perseverance when the going got rough and loyalty to the cause even when faced with the seemingly impossible. Time has a way of telling us the truth about our loved ones and truthfully, my dad accomoplished so much more in this life, than he was ever given credit for. And my siblings and I have been the beneficiaries!
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!
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