Dad

So, in the middle of my branch's month-end close last Friday, I look down and see a text from my Mom.

"Dad is out....very loopy but all is good to go!"

Huh?

Oh yeah.  I knew that he was going in for a colonscopy last Friday, but it had slipped my mind (I suck as a daughter.  Could also be becuase sometimes I am ultra aware of my own - and therefore my own parents' mortality.  I know that my mom has always said that a parent should never have to bury their child, but I think it's just as cruel as a child burying a parent, at least before that child is at least 90....so therefore I try to push scary things like out of my mind.  Childish?  Probably).  I immediately texted back telling my mom to give Dad a kiss for me and that I'd talk to her later, and that I was glad everything was okay.

Leave it to my Dad.  The very Monday after he turned 50, he was on the phone with his doctor, scheduling what I don't really think is the most comfortable of procedures; one that most doctors have to prod and corral their patients into with threats and statistics.

My Dad is one of the most health conscious guys you'll meet.  He doesn't eat the best stuff for him all the time, but he's super aware of eating vegetables and his fiber and all that stuff.  He runs whenever he can and lifts weights on his way into the house everyday from work.  But he is terrified of being one of those stories....one that just scares me to death to even think, but isn't it always the case?  That guy at the grocery store, loading up his cart with chips and Mighty Man (Hungry Man?) meals and ice cream.....with a pack of cigarettes checking out.....that will live til he's 115.  Healthy guys, guys with 6 or 10% body fat, with perfectly good hearts and what have you......well, they don't. 

Chris lost his dad when he was 2 days shy of 10 years old.  I know Chris thinks about him everyday, and we sometimes talk about his dad.  What was he like?  Was he funny?  Did he tell good stories?  What is your favorite memory of him?  How have you felt on some of the biggest days of your life, him not being there - graduation, our wedding day........how will you feel when we have our first child? 

I can't imagine my life without my Dad.  And so for another 10 years at least, we don't have to worry about his colon.  :)  Everything else - well, that's in God's hands.  But surely God knows what a troublemaker my Dad is.........he just takes the good ones early, right? 

I kid, and I'm being flippant about a very serious thing.  So I'll leave it at this.  Thank God my Dad is around for awhile longer.