Personal Narrative: Life Taught By My Daddy And His Red Pickup

Life Taught by My Daddy and His Red Pickup

The song “Daddy’s Hands” illustrates my dad to a tee. He was strong yet gentle, harsh but kind, hands showed he was a hard worker, and his grey blue eyes sparkled when he smiled. The last couple yeas of his life I got to spend a lot of quality time with him as I was out of work. I took him to all his doctor appointments. He had had lung cancer and surgery to remove the lung in 1997. But what was so special about that time was every Tuesday and Thursday we went to Green Country Physical Therapy’s pool (we were members as a couple). He did exercises in the water and I swam. Then we had lunch where we discussed family and life’s issues. Those were special days; one on one in an intimate sharing of life and love. …show more content…
It had 15 miles on the odometer when he drove it off the lot. He had ordered it. First and only one he did. The odometer quit working years ago at 200,000 miles. It became his mode of transportation everywhere. The wear and tear was showing. I tried to convince him to sell it and get something smaller that was a more comfortable ride. “No one of you kids may need it.” So, it went on being serviceable for him. He put a tag on the front with his initials, LBA. Daddy died in 2003. The red pickup became a matter for the family to decide what to do with it. My husband, Ted, requested it and the family agreed. So Daddy’s prediction came true – Ted needed it. I really was ashamed of its appearance but proud that Ted loved it. Over the years it has served us well. At times being the only one of our three vehicles that worked. It looks even worse now, but still runs great. We lovingly call it LB – it still has the tag on the front and people in town know it by