Father's Day Tribute

Many memories of my father stem from my childhood. As a little girl, I loved when daddy would ask me if I wanted to go with him in his red pickup. I always did. Being with my father stirred a sense of safety and always made me feel like a princess.


A tall man with dark hair and very handsome, my father was a man who exuded strength and character. Daddy personified the actor, John Wayne, who was the “it” man of the day and was truly a man’s man! When I was growing up he raced an F Racing Runabout boat that required a deck rider to keep the boat from flipping. In 1948 he won the Regional Championship for his boat racing class.


He was also a hunter. Every September he and his hunting buddies flew in a small plane owned by one of the men, to Wyoming or Montana. I remember his telling me after one trip that Wyoming was the least populated state in the Union. He loved that! How could anyone love a state with few people? Now, over a half-century later and living in the densely populated Northeast, I understand. The tranquility of the Grand Tetons and buffalo roaming across the meadows spoke to his soul.


It’s been forty-two years since I’ve had my father to celebrate Father’s Day. In 1970 daddy died from heart disease at the young age of forty-nine. I was a young mother with a husband, an infant daughter and pregnant. I remember feeling I was way too young to lose my father. My mother was only forty-six years of age when she was widowed.


In those twenty-five years of knowing my father he evoked a range of emotions from our family dynamic. Life wasn’t perfect but still, it seems to be every girl’s dream to be the apple of her daddy’s eye. I was no different. I wanted his love, his approval, his affirmation, his support, his wisdom and his arms around me telling me everything would be okay.


I am blessed with many wonderful memories of picnics at the boat races, trips to Sequoia National Park, summers at the beach in Cayucos with the roiling waves of the Pacific Ocean lapping at the shore, trips to Disneyland, riding in the back of daddy’s pickup with my brother, Hugh, and helping daddy pick out yet another new blue bathrobe for mom’s birthday with my sister, Lezlie.


But, the banner day of memories was my wedding when my father walked me down the aisle. I’d never seen him look so proud; so handsome.


Thank you, daddy, for contributing a boatload of memories that fill my heart to this day.

Hope for today

It's been a long while since I last wrote a blog entry but I'm happy to report I'm back. This afternoon I attended a seminar at my local library on blogging. This entry is the result of leaving the workshop not only inspired but determined to write a blog post before the day ends.


Once back at my apartment I immediately kicked off my sandals and sat down in my comfy desk chair. Ignoring the stack of papers in front of me that need clearing I began pecking away on my keyboard.


Sometimes life throws us a curve ball that upsets our equilibrium. We flounder and become befuddled by our reality and everything takes a back seat while we seek to regain our rhythm. In that process our creative passion and other means of self-expression can get lost in the shuffle. Over these past eight months that's what has happened to me. A curve ball has been thrown my way that been bogged me down and raised questions about my quality of life for the future.


Last fall I was placed on a kidney transplant list and have been dealing with monthly blood work and frequent doctor's appointments with a kidney specialist. This past spring, I learned that I may have a liver problem and was referred to a liver specialist. The liver specialist sent me to Columbia University Medical Center in New York City to be evaluated for a kidney/liver transplant.


Dealing with chronic disease has affected my energy level and raised questions like how am I going to accomplish my dreams with all this kidney liver transplant business going on? I'd just as soon forget the whole thing! But, being foolish never did us any good, so I will forge on and face my reality but not let my circumstances define me. I am so much more than my circumstances and God is so much bigger!


I hope that you perhaps will pick back up a project or passion that you may have dropped due to a detour. It's never too late to fulfill God's destiny for our lives no matter what curve ball gets thrown our way.
And, in the meantime, please do drop in again for new postings, happenings, book reviews, and other serendipitous matters. You can find my column, Top Blonde…on the run! at www.northjersey.com/pascackvalley under “columnist” Jennifer Botkin Phillips




"There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow." Orison Sweet Marden