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Topic: See (07/22/10)
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TITLE: A Daddy Sees | Previous Challenge Entry
By Betty Farrow
07/27/10 -
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Of course I didn’t remember that but my mind traveled back to when I was in elementary school. I glanced up from my book one day to see daddy on a ladder outside my classroom. Our eyes met and he mouthed “Boo!” I’m sure I jumped.
Daddy was a service man for the local power company and his job took him all over our town day and night. He could see an entire neighborhood from his perch on the light pole. I never knew when daddy would be watching me, seeing what I was doing. It was just a fact of life.
“Peeeeek-a-boooo. I seeee you,” daddy said as he pulled the big red handkerchief slowly from my grandson’s head anticipating the belly laugh that would soon come. Where had the time gone?
Though no longer able to climb poles, daddy was still watching out for me. Traveling home alone from the airport late one night to an empty house, daddy talked to me as I walked across the dark parking lot and locked myself in the car. He continued talking to me the hour it took to drive home and he made sure I was safely locked within my empty house before he hung up his phone.
“Daddy, you can’t stay here by yourself any longer,” I said. “You need to move where I can take care of you. I bought the house across the street from me.” Mama had been gone over a year and daddy’s health was failing. I couldn’t take care of him long distance. After considerable argument, he finally moved. Out my front door, across the street and diagonally less than 150 yards to daddy’s back door, I could be there in less than sixty seconds.
He positioned his recliner by his back window where he could watch me day and night. He watched me walk across his yard in the morning for a brief visit before I left for work; he called me to make sure I was at work safely; he called me several times a day for whatever reason; he watched me drive into my driveway each afternoon. He watched my husband and I come and go and he questioned everything we did. “Where are you going?” followed by the inevitable, “when will you be home?” He drove us crazy! My husband and I had been married over 40 years. We had long stopped reporting to anyone but each other about our comings and goings. But, it was what daddy did. Deep down in my heart I knew if I needed him, as feeble as he was, daddy would crawl across that yard to get to me.
I held up well through the funeral. It was not until the first night I was home alone that I realized how empty I felt. Then the tears flowed. I finally cried myself to sleep. Something tickled my eyes and nose. With pounding heart, I forced my eyes open. The handkerchief I had grabbed to wipe the tears was one of daddy’s red ones and a corner of it was blowing in my face, tickling me. I heard the words again, “Peeeeek-a-boooo. I seeee you,” but this time they were different. This time they were whispered in my heart by my Abba Father. The peace that followed brought comfort that only my Heavenly Daddy could give. The laughter bubbled up from deep within my belly and expelled into a joyful praise. I looked to heaven and thanked God that I had been blessed by an earthly daddy who taught me to trust the Heavenly Father who continuously watches over and cares for me.
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I loved how you subtly implied that your father always watching you is quite similar to how God is always looking over us.
Just make sure you capitalize Daddy when you are using it as his name.
Thank you for the touching journey done memory lane.