Daddy's Hands

Daddy's Hands ...one of my all time favorite songs.

Pam, go get your hanky, I'm gonna talk about Daddy now....I"ll wait....
*+*+ looks at ceiling *+*+*
*+*+ scuffs toe on floor *+*+
*+*+ checks watch *+*+

Okay, you back? Here goes:

Daddy could do anything. Period. If something was beyond repair, he could build a new one. He could get you the best deal on anything. He could rebuild a car from the tires up. He could mend a broken heart.

And he had a sense of humor. He used to tell us he was so unloved, he was going to change his name to Miss Treated. Or Percy Cuted. He'd put his glasses down low on his nose and make sad eyes. I loved to hear him laugh.

One time, Daddy decided we girls needed a good mirror on the wall in our bedroom. So he was going to hang one.

He measured so he would get the hangers right on the studs to hold it up. Daddy never did anything halfway..he did it right the first time. He hammered in one hanger...right into the stud. Then he hammered in the other one. Uh oh....no stud. What? The measurement was perfect, the stud should be right there. He dropped a little lower and found the stud. Right where it was supposed to be. So he went back up to the chosen height and tried again. No stud. What was going on here? How could the stud be there at a lower level, but not up where he was hammering.


So he went into the bathroom, on the other side of the wall where the mirror was to hang. Measured. Hammered. Yep the stud was there. Right where it should be. Try again. Bedroom, no stud. Bathroom, stud.

Finally, frustration got the best of him, and he took his hammer to the bathroom wall. He knocked a giant hole into it. He was determined to find out why that stud wasn't where it was supposed to be.

Turns out there was a knothole in the stud. It caused the stud to be solid on the bathroom side, and 'holey' on the bedroom side.

Daddy swore he wanted to update the bathroom walls anyway. And we got our mirror, just a little bit higher than he originally planned.
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There was one other time when Daddy's hammer went to flying. Mother wanted a Venthood over her stove so Daddy got her one and was hanging it. Simple job. Hang it. Plug it in.

Oops. Something wasn't right. It was plugged in, but nothing was working. So he took it down, checked the wiring. Everything seemed fine. Hang it again. Plug it in.

DAMN! still not working. Memories of the mirror must have been going through his mind. Finally, frustration got the  best of him and he pulled the vent down from the wall and sent it sailing out the back door and down the driveway.

Unfortunately when he pulled it down, he also pulled down a large chunk of the kitchen wall. Mother, at this point, is in the corner of the kitchen wondering just what could happen next. Well.....not wanting to have the evidence of his failure staring him in the face, he went to the dining room and got one of  the brass plates off the wall, and drove a nail over the hole, and hung that plate. Never mind that it was about three feet off center.

That's when Mother lost all composure. She collapsed into gales of laughter. She called her friend, Betty, and was laughing so hard, that Betty thought she was crying and came flying into the house, breaking every speed limit between her house and ours. When she saw the offset plate, and Mother sitting on the floor laughing, and the vent in the driveway, it all came together.

Daddy swore he wanted to update the kitchen walls anyway. And Mother got her Venthood, after Daddy found the "ON" switch inside it.
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Daddy was especially good at dealing with the hearts of little girls. And big girls too.

One time, when I was in the second grade, I saw an advertisement that the Korn King Giant was going to be making an appearance at our local grocery store. A GIANT, a real GIANT! This, I had to see! But, alas, the time of his appearance to the commoners coincided with school. What to do, what to do? Fake sick and somehow get Mother to take me to the store with her, just in time to see 8 foot royalty? Hmmm...not likely that she would take me out if I was sick. So I did the next best thing. I told Daddy what I wanted. I wanted to see a real giant. So he did what any daddy would do....he made my heart's desire come true. He took me out of school, and drove me to the store just in time to see the giant. And boy! Was I disappointed! It was just a skinny man, just a little taller than Daddy, in a cheesy crown.

I think I learned a lesson from this. Things aren't always what they are hyped up to be. Maybe that was Daddy's plan in the first place.
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Fast forward 15 years. My husband and I had separated for the first of many times. I was devastated. I didn't think my heart would ever mend. So Daddy did what any daddy would do. He took me dancing. And on the dance floor, he assured me that I didn't have to cry any more, and life would go on, and things would be better. All while Freddy Fender sang "I'll Be There Before The Next Teardrop Falls."

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We lost Daddy on July 11, 2000. His hair was no longer red, and his arms were no longer strong. When he first went into the hospice, I remember him sitting cross-legged in bed, visiting with us all as we stood around. I wondered if he knew then that he had gone there to die. He was in a coma for the last 10 days or so. But I got a miracle. After he had been unconcious for a few days, I got a phone call. It was him. He just said a few words, just that he loved me. And he called me his baby girl, one last time.
He never spoke again, not to me, anyway.
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It's not easy to lose your hero. But I can imagine him up in Heaven, blue hammer in hand, looking for a wall in his mansion that needs updating.

I love you Daddy.