Sunday is such a special day; a day to salute our blessed fathers .... Please, if your father is living, visit him, call him, make him feel like a king. If your father is no longer with you, re-live with your family things that made him so special. I know some fathers didn't always fall into the category of being a perfect father; some of you might have been abandoned by your father and my heart grieves for you. I miss my Dad. He died 10 years ago and there is not a day that passes that something will remind me of him. He wasn't famous. He wasn't able to serve in the military. He wasn't rich. But he was the most wonderful Dad that I could have ever had. At 83 when he died, he looked 60 though he was almost totally deaf and macular degeneration had robbed him of most of his vision. Up to a month or so of his death, he was still working on my old Honda; he had been a mechanic most of his life and he could fix that car by feel. He wasn't a carpenter, never could drive a nail straight or measure things exactly. But he took an old lawn mower handle, attached a wooden box somehow to it and made a "green mobile" for my daughters to push their stuffed animals around with. Dad never figured out what all the fuss was about genealogy. But, he was so proud of me. Even in his partial blindness, he "interviewed" me about all the books I'd written, the cemeteries we had visited, the adventures we'd had and wanted to publish it as "Genealogy She Wrote." He never finished that book, he couldn't see his own writing and it was above his head. A high school graduate from central IL, one of 6 children, of which 5 were sisters. He was born just after World War I, lived through the depression, and wanted to serve in World War II but was rejected because of a back problem. He worked hard - not at fancy jobs that garnered praise, but just blue collar jobs where you sweat a lot, hurt a lot, and bring home just enough to feed to family and not much more. I don't remember my Daddy telling me he loved me many times, but I knew it. He was not a hugger but I could always feel his arms of love around me. Two days before he died - he was tired and had to nap; his heart was giving out but we didn't know it. The doctor had assured us that his congestive heart failure was being treated successfully. He had just changed a tire on my car a couple of days before that. But, I think he knew somehow. He got up, came over and threw his arms around me. He looked at me with those piercing blue eyes which I inherited and said, "honey, I love you." Little did I know that when I said "I love you too Daddy", it would be the last time I'd hear those words. So Father's Day still means a lot to me. I think of all the little things he did, the big things he did and the list would go on for pages. I since lost husband, father-in-law, and have no living male relatives except one I haven't seen for many years and one living uncle. I can't wish them Happy Father's Day. So, I'm sending it out to all the Dad's on the lists that have stuck with me for years or are new to the list. You are special. I'm proud of you. Happy Father's Day to all of you and Happy Father's Day Daddy, I till love you. Sandi Sandi's Puzzlers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gensoup/gorin/puz.html SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html GGP: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/