Five years ago today, my precious daddy went to be with his Father in Heaven. Finally, his earthly pain was taken away. This man put up an unbelievable fight for longer than he probably should have...but man, I am so thankful he did.
Our family has numerous times joked that while Heaven was having a party for receiving him, we were crying like babies at losing our "gentle giant." (my mama's endearing term for her husband) While we were thrilled that he was no longer suffering, it was hard to say goodbye. Really hard. It still is hard. There is not a day that passes that I do not think of him. I miss him so much and would give anything to have one more day. One more day to see that huge proud smile that he always smiled at my brother and me. One more day to tell him about the last 5 years. One more day for him to excitedly tell me all about Heaven and what we have to look forward to. One more day to show him Minnesota and our "Northern life" up here. :) One more day for him to meet and play with his grandsons, Parker and Cooper...he would love every second of it.
I can list out a hundred things that I would do with him and say to him if I could have that 24 hours. I also, however, think back to how thankful I am for the moments he was here to see (the doctors were suprised he lasted as long as he did.) I am beyond thankful that he was here to walk me down the aisle on my wedding day...to meet the man that I would spend the rest of my life with and to know that this guy would take care of me after he was gone...to see me graduate with a overall plan and goal for my life...too see and know that we would all be ok.
Man, how grateful I am for that time..for those moments...for those memories made that I will cherish forever.
Every day that passes our family gets stronger. Each day we miss him. Each day we celebrate the time that we were gifted with Rickey Jones. Each day, I thank God for helping and allowing him to hold on to life as long as he did. I am blessed to have known him. I am blessed to be able to call him my Daddy.
4 comments:
Carrie, your father impacted my life in unimaginable ways. I have been thinking about him a lot these past 6 months. God placed this blog entry on my heart, and I wanted to share it with you: http://theadventuresofjennamcmurphy.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-bad-things-happen-to-good-people.html
Carrie,
Your dad was indeed a wonderful person. Ward (and I a little bit) had the pleasure of working with Rickey for awhile,and he never failed to greet the day with a smile. That was Rickey. You were truly blessed to have him in your life. All the time Ward was working with him, he never,ever heard a complaint of how he felt,and in fact Ward didn't know he had any illness at all! Of course every day was filled with Rickey wanting to know about what was going on in our lives!! He was loved by all,and you were all truly blessed to call him Daddy. We were blessed to call him friend.
Take care,
love,
Betty Brister
So touching Carrie. I can feel what a special father he was just by reading. I had not seen pictures of you when you were little. Parker absolutely is your son.
Thank you all for the kind comments. I appreciate them so much.
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