“Live in such a way that if someone spoke badly of you, no one would believe it.”

Today marks 14 years since my Dad’s passing. So when I came upon this quote, I thought it fit perfectly.

My Dad was certainly the kind of guy that you really couldn’t say much bad about.

Well, ok. Maybe you could say he was a huge talker. And sometimes talked about random things. He also tended to name drop about people on his mission (like you were supposed to know who they were??). And Sundays took him FOREVER to leave church (this one scarred me for life I think, as now we are usually one of the first families to leave the building after church)! He also liked to get into political debates particularly when he knew you would get flustered. He could be a bit of a bugger like that.

But anything “BAD” about him? No.

If anyone spoke badly of him, it would be hard to believe.

All his talking was usually because he wanted to see how people were doing, or he would be giving some advice, or telling a funny story to make people laugh. Or sometimes because he was just in a social mood. Despite all his talking, he was generally a loner.

However, you would not hear him criticize anyone. He was the first one to go visit someone who was ill. He would stop to chat with people on the street  and say hello to absolutely everyone. He would pick things from his garden and deliver them to neighbours. He would shovel people’s driveways in the winter.

He would go into random churches to pray and light candles for someone he knew was suffering. And take you to those churches every chance he got which fostered a love of all churches everywhere. This was of course in addition to diligently attending all his own church services and meetings.

He was a teacher who didn’t work school hours. In early, home late, and delivering course work to the homes of student’s who were sick.

Most importantly, he would show up on my doorstep with a danish pastry, after taking the bus and subway for 1.5 hours just because that morning he thought I sounded sad.

I miss him. I feel like with every year I miss him more, as there are so many things I would like to ask him. As the kids grow older I wish that they had a chance to know their Grandpa. When I see one of the boys do something that he used to do though, it makes me happy to see that part of his legacy is continuing on in small ways.

He blessed our lives when he was here and continues to bless our lives now that he is watching over us.