Happy Father's Day

I miss my Daddy. 

He would have been 83 this July 16, 2012. I’m a dyed in the wool “Daddy’s girl”. My Daddy and I could finish each others sentences. Used to drive my Mother crazy. Smile

I remember different things though out my life that only a Father/Daddy provides. Hearing a man’s perspective of how we were to be treated by men. What behaviors we should and should not accept. Per Daddy a man paid for the pleasure of your company when he took you out and that’s ALL he was entitled to. My Daddy always had two $10.00 bills in his sock drawer when my sister Vanessa and I started dating, my other sisters were too young to date. Ten dollars would cover cab fare from anywhere in Detroit. If a date started talking stupid, you could get safely home.

I miss being able to go to Daddy and talk about anything. We had to give him fifteen minutes when he first came in the door to allow him to decompress from whatever he had to deal with in the outside world. While he was doing this he would ask my Mother how her day went. He never made light of anything that she spoke of. This was really restraint on his part because my Daddy could make anything humorous.

I used to get up at 5am so I could talk with my Daddy before everyone else got up and it was time for Daddy to  go to work. I remember always wanting to follow my Daddy around which is why I walked so fast when I was younger. Daddy had long legs and I had to step to keep up with him.

My Daddy had a way of helping people that it seemed like you were doing him a favor if you accepted help. I asked Daddy about this. He replied, “That when people were going through hard times, sometimes all they had was their dignity. You take that away from them they have nothing to work with.”

I remember Daddy’s last walk with cancer. They had first removed a lung and Daddy had made it past the five year mark. Then we got the news there was a huge mass in his colon.  Daddy refused regular chemo. He wasn’t going through that again. Daddy refused hospitalization and hospice. He was going out like he had lived, with dignity.

Daddy wanted to know why I had converted to Islam? He had many questions about Prophet Mohammad(saw) Daddy seemed intrigued that the prophet was a regular person who did so much.

During Daddy’s final walk I remember grown men coming to visit him and making it to the front porch and bawling. My Daddy had helped so many people, when he died the funeral processional was so looooooooooooooooog. People called for months afterwards to see what they could do for my family because Daddy had helped so many others.

Rest In Peace Big Will

Love you forever

Michelle