MY FAVORITE MEMORIES OF DAD

Today marks eleven years since my father, Robert "Papa" Duke, passed away at the age of 86.  I've written about him several times on this blog--about his life, on his birthday, on Veteran's Day--but today I just want to share some of my fond and blessed memories of how he touched my life.

1.  His robust laugh - I just cannot describe that joyful and full-bodied laugh of his and do it justice.  It was contagious, and we all ended up laughing along with him whenever he was sharing one of his funny stories or demonstrating how something had happened.

2. His delicious food - To Dad, "food = love."  He was an excellent cook-cum-chef, using that gift as a career.  Our family often joked that since Dad had cooked in the U.S. Army, he often cooked enough at home to feed an Army--and we tried to eat as much as an army would!

I've been in the thinking stages of a book planned around family recipes; I haven't decided yet if it will be merely a cookbook, because some of those delicious recipes used in my books have stories behind them:
Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
Chocolate Mint Brownies
Pork Chop Suey
Cranberry Banana Jam
Hungarian Beef Stew
Mexican Enchilada Casserole
Crunch Cake
Chicken and Dumplings
Farmer's Breakfast
Frosted Cinnamon Rolls
Lobster Newberg
Blackberry Cobbler

3. His music - As a young man, he started out with the acoustic guitar, teaching himself to play.  Later in life, Dad played the electric guitar by ear, and I'm thankful to have a recording he made just a couple of years before he died.  On it, he played some of his old favorites, even singing along on some of those and making comments here and there as only he could do:  T FOR TEXAS, GOODY GOODY, and the like.  He enjoyed music of the old timers, like Hank Williams, Eddie Arnold, and later Patsy Cline, Les Paul, Chet Atkins (his idol).  It is cherished.

4. His zest for life - Oh, how Dad loved the outdoors.  Our family went camping when I was young, across campgrounds in Europe, meeting friendly people of all nationalities.  What an education!  We even camped in the summertime in Alaska, but in a camper instead of a tent--it got pretty cold there, even on summer nights.

He had a huge garden, and under his large and capable hands with TWO green thumbs, it thrived and produced record crops of fruits and vegetables every year.  He loved fresh vegetables, even making his homemade salsa that needed a fire extinguisher while eating it!  His home-canned green beans were wonderful, and he and my mom spent many weeks canning and freezing their bounty.  He even took fresh veggies to "elderly" shut-ins well into his eighties!  

5. His love for dogs - As I was growing up, we usually had some kind of "dawg" around, and we did own several dachshunds.  We actually got our first doxie when we lived in Germany--a red female whom we named Elia.  All dogs loved Dad, because he played with and fed them endlessly!  He even got one of our dachshunds named Samantha, whom we called Sam,  to talk.  She could say "I'm hongry" the way Dad pronounced it, "wanna go out," along with a couple of other words.  Dad was thrilled to get Sam to "speak" for visitors.

6.  His delightful sense of humor - I simply had to include this one as a separate point, because he could make anybody laugh!  His zany stories and escapades, some of which are highlighted in THE DACHSHUND ESCAPADES books, are all true:  the fence story, the fishing story, the alligator story, to name a few.  He not only told his stories, but he would get up and demonstrate them, showing his audience how a dog loped along (I still can't do it justice myself), how a mosquito flew erratically when he was released from a freezer he had inadvertently flown into, or how an alligator opened his mouth by Dad's using his arms as jaws.  You'd just have to see these to understand why we all laughed so much around him :).

7. His faith - Dad came to know the Lord rather late in life, in his fifties.  But he became a different person once he accepted Christ.  He opened his already-big heart to others, reached out to help people, and simply lived out his faith in such a way that the dramatic change that took place in his life was a joy to witness.

Dad, we all love and miss you, but we know by your own words before leaving us that you are with our heavenly Father now.  This world is poorer without you, but you've left behind a treasure trove of wonderful memories for us.  You would have adored those great grandchildren you never met as well as the doxies we now have, Duke and Shadow.

When our family all gets together, you are there with us as we speak fondly of you and your legacy of love you left behind as your gift to us.