My Father will always be with me

My father figures prominently in everything I do and a number of things I don’t.

Dad hunted and fished and raised a garden. He liked good food and cold beer, enjoyed off-color jokes, and my mother’s company.

I hunt and fish more than my father did, raise a larger garden and on occasion drink too much beer. I, too, like a good dirty joke, and enjoy my wife’s company.

He was a spiritual man and I like to think I am too, although he was church-going and I’m not. Dad used to always ask if I’d joined a church yet. It was important, he told me. I’d hem and haw and change the subject.

He also stressed how important family is and wanted me to stay in closer touch with my sister, who I have little in common with other than parents and upbringing. I’d tell him I’d call her.

Dad was 90 when he passed away nearly eight years ago. He died in a fall in the bathroom so I didn’t get to say goodbye. I doubt it would have made any difference. My father will always be with me.

He was there last month when I was planting corn, just like when I was a kid and he let me use the old iron-wheeled push plow for the first time.

He was with me last week on the bass pond, showing me where to cast, and he was with me last night on the deck when I cracked a beer and got a whiff of that horrible Falls City brew he used to drink.

He’s there when I fire up the grill, cautioning me not to put the barbecue sauce on chicken too soon or it will burn and turn black.

Come September, I still hear his advice when a covey rises.

“Pick out a single bird,” he says. “Don’t just shoot at the flock.”

And anytime I hear a joke that begins with “A rabbi, a priest and a minister walk into a bar ...” I look around expecting to see my father.

Dad was also there last Sunday when I was working in the yard and folks began to arrive at the church across the street. He didn’t have to say anything.

And too often I can still hear him ask, “Have you talked to your sister lately?”

Sunday was Fathers Day. Maybe I should give her a call.

Parker Heinlein is at

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