Father’s Day Love

It’s Father’s Day tomorrow and love keeps showing up!  For my family, let me share a good memory of my Dad,
Donald V. Thomas. 

I was supposed to be a boy, so they had the name Donald picked out for me.  You guessed it, Donna is a feminine side to the name Donald.  One really good time I had with my father was all about me.  No one else was involved, just me.  Our family went to a farm outside Chicago, Illinois for a picnic day that must have had something to do with his job.  Our family lived inside the city of Chicago and this was a treat!  And you know how children love farms. 

I explored, bothered my older brother, ignored my little sister and found other kids I liked.  My father came up to me during that day and said, “I have something to show you.  Follow me.”  We walked over to a storage area near the barn and he pointed out a dollhouse made of wood.  It was large and on wheels, with the back open and it had two floors.  I was impressed with it and smiled, giving my words of admiration for the house when he told me it was mine!  Mine!  We could take it home! 

My next memory was cleaning the doll house up and painting it with my father.  My friend, Earl was over and he watched as we painted it with great care.  The doll house had lapped siding, a front door and windows with glass, a roof and now it was freshly coated with white paint.  We were out in the backyard on the grass as Dad was kneeling there with the brush in his hand and the grass getting white tips.  I painted too, but he loved painting that house more than me.  And with great originality, I named it the ‘white house’.  What I loved was the time he spent with me. 

I played with that doll house for a few years and then we had to move to Washington State and leave it behind with the next excited little girl that inherited it.  We’d left our dog, Blackie and that doll house.  I missed them both. 

Think about that one act of love that stayed with a daughter all these years.  He had to have seen the dollhouse before me and asked his friend if it was being used.  Maybe that friend had made the dollhouse himself for his daughter.  But my Dad ‘scored’ the dollhouse for me!  Then he brought it back with us, cleaned it up and painted with me! 

Never underestimate the things you do for your children and with your children.  The memories they tuck away are passed on and each generation learns from them.  Keep your traditions that build into their lives.  There is a payback on them, and part of that payback will be seeing your grandchildren and great-grandchildren pass on the love…your love.  I don’t think that an act of love ever ends.  It just keeps reinventing itself and showing up in your family.

Leave a comment; leave a memory to share with us!