Dad passed away in 1998 at the age of 65. He lived a full life, marrying Mom in 1952, co-parenting their five kids, working over 35 years for the same company before retiring at age 59 when his company was closed down by the parent company, then volunteering for his church and community, when he wasn't traveling or otherwise enjoying life.
The thing is, he wasn't supposed to live to be thirty. When he was six years old, he contracted rheumatic fever, which had him in hospital for two weeks, and left him with a heart condition. That medical condition kept him from realizing his dream to be a veterinarian working with large animals. When he took his army physical during the Korean War, he was declared 4F, and the doctors told him he wouldn't live to see thirty.
He must have been somewhat uncertain about what he wanted to do with his life by then, so he took up an offer to drive an elderly cousin of his mom from Minnesota to Oregon. Once there, he spent the next year working different jobs, from bellboy at the Umpqua Hotel in Roseburg, Oregon, to psych tech at the VA Hospital there, where he met Mom. They were married three months later.
When his kids were small, the young family began attending the First Christian Church, and he accepted Christ as his Savior. After that, everything came into focus for him. He worked hard to support his family, and took good care of himself physically. He ultimately defied all early expectations of his doctors, and lived more than twice as long as they predicted. He was a wonderful husband and father, and a greatly admired Christian servant of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment