Speaking in the Light

This year marks the painful reality that it has been 10 years since I said a final “Goodbye” to my best friend and hero, my Dad.
On Sept. 13, 2000 my Pop rounded third and headed home as he left this planet, his body pretty beaten by the cancer, but his spirit just as strong as ever as he departed earth and entered his new residence with our Heavenly Father in Glory.
Not a day goes by that I still do not miss him immensely. I still see him every time I look in the mirror and I hear his voice clearly when I speak. I dream about him almost every night. He not only gave me his name, Rudolph Peter, but he also passed on most of his physical characteristics to me.
Thanks dad that I’m bald.
But seriously, he did a wonderful job of instilling his values and sharing his faith with me and imparting his life and spirit into me. What a legacy and what an example. I told him all this while he was still alive but I feel like I want to do it one more time today. Thanks dad for being the greatest father a son could have.
One of the things I asked my Dad to do a couple of years before the cancer came on the scene was to share some of his memories and adventures by writing them down for me in a journal I presented him one Christmas.
I am so glad that he actually filled it in for me. It is the greatest gift a son could have received to be able to hear his father’s heart when he doesn’t have his actual father around anymore.
I find myself reading this treasury with tears in my eyes and a lot of laughter in my soul because it makes me love and appreciate him more. I would strongly recommend and urge you parents reading this article today to begin preparing a journal that you may some day be able to present to your children as a gift to them after you are gone.
It will mean more than any material thing that they may inherit from you. To be able to inherit your heart is a much greater gift.
One of my favorite stories within this journal is my Dad talking about my Grandfather. My Grandfather died when I was a baby so I never knew him. In the journal, Dad tells me about the events of October, 1953.
He talks about my Grandfather being a good man, acquainted with God. Dad shares that his father made him and his two brothers and one sister toe the line in his quiet way.
My Dad, like his father and unlike me, was a quiet and strong man who made his presence known more by his actions rather than with his outspokenness. Dad goes on to share that when he would head back to the navy base, his father would always wait outside of the house for him as Dad was leaving to go and catch his bus.
“Do you need any money?” his father would always ask. If it was raining, he’d wait there with an umbrella, but he did not want anybody to see him doing that. They might have thought him a softy, which he was at heart, but he tried not to show it. Even though, my Dad admired his father a lot.
On the second cruise to the Mediterranean when word came that my Grandfather had suffered a heart attack, my Dad could hardly believe it. Dad did not know whether his father would still be alive when and if he could even get home.
Dad went to speak to his captain about it. Now one of the qualities about my Dad was that he was the type of person that you would run through a wall for because you knew he would do the very same for you.
He quickly learned how many friends he had upon his ship, the Stoddard. Not only did Dad get leave to return home, but his shipmates chipped in $300 of their own money to fly him back. Dad flew from Spain to Naples, to Algiers, to Port Lyautey, to the Azores, over the Pawtuxet River, then to Maryland and finally home to Clifton, New Jersey.
Even then, my Dad gave all the credit to the goodness of God. Not only did he see his father alive, but he saw him recover and go on to live another eight years.
I know I received the lesson of the importance of family modeled clearly from my Dad. We kids were never afterthoughts or inconveniences to him. He truly enjoyed being with us and we with him. Are your children and loved ones getting that message from you?
Please do not under-estimate the power that just caring has in the lives of those around you. For my Dad, it was his buddies rallying around him to help him get home to see his father. It was his father waiting for him in the rain to say a special farewell.
For me, it was the privilege to be there with Dad, walking by his side in his life and being by his side when life on earth ended. My prayer is that my life will continue to keep his memory alive and well and because of the power of his impact, I have no doubt that this will continue to be a lasting reality.
I hope that your lives do the same for all those that live and move and breathe daily around you. I still miss you Daddy! I guess until I see you again, which I know that someday soon I will, I’ll learn to live with that longing for reunion and keep on showing them Jesus and humbly, make you proud of me.
Write Pastor Rudy pastorrudytlc@comcast.net