My Daddy...The Rock Star!
Most of you here know Daddy, Thomas Petty. Maybe you called him Tom or Tommy, Mr. Tom, or Mr. Petty. You may have known him as your mechanic, your school bus driver, the cart guy at Saubel's, or he sold you auto parts. Maybe you attended church with him. Maybe you camped with him, or knew him from the fire company. However you knew him, you know he was kind, fair, strong and honest.
If you'll indulge me, I would love to tell you in more detail who this man was!
We called him Daddy, Pop-Pop, and Poppy.
He was the patriarch of our family! And he instilled in every single one of us, the importance of God and Country. A life of service. In our family we have police officers, retired and active. We have firefighters, nurses, and other first responders. We have a pastor. We have military. That is no coincidence! Patriotism, love of country, love for our Lord. That's what our patriarch believed in. He instilled all of that into us on a daily basis. He did so without force. He instilled it in us by example. A deacon and a faithful member right here in this church till the day he died. A charter member of Whiteford Volunteer Fire Company, and recently inducted into the Harford Cecil Volunteer Firemen's Association Hall of Fame along with my Mom for their years of service. He was a Marine and so very proud of that! That's how he instilled it in us. We just followed his example.
Now, let's talk about the Daddy our family saw as we grew up.
He was very strong in his faith. Daddy worked 6 days a week, but Sundays were for church, for rest, and for family. Always!!
Our Sundays were so much fun and filled with so much love!
Quick wit, sharp mind, and fun loving were also words I would use to describe him as a Father.
And, let's face it, he was a rock star!
Tom Petty, my Daddy, the rock star.
Everywhere he and my Mom went, when someone learned his name, it eventually turned into my Mom saying "I'm the heartbreaker!" And people still call her that! If I go to the pharmacy to pick up for her, they always say 2 for the heartbreaker today!
And since he was a rock star, it only seems right that he knew other rock stars. One day he told us "kids", and at that time teenage grandchildren, that he met a group of men who were fixing up a car and had bought parts from him. When the car was done they invited him to come look at it. He had no clue who they were, but when he told us, we all just sat in shock. My rock star Dad hung out one afternoon with Jon Bon Jovi and his band!
One more fun story about Daddy's sense of humor....
We were on a boat on Lake Anna in VA enjoying a picnic lunch after beaching the boat on an island. After lunch we tried to start the boat and it wouldn't start. We decided we would have to call the marina to come get us, but someone said where do we tell them we are? Lake Anna is a big lake with many islands! Without skipping a beat, Daddy sang "some beach, somewhere!"
He was an avid gardener and until his stroke he had the best garden in Harford County! My Mom canned and froze everything he grew. Together they could feed an army. And with the size of our family, we went through green beans pretty fast! If you never had those green beans Daddy grew and Mommy canned and then cooked, you seriously missed out!
Since Christmas Daddy had suffered so much. His aortic valve was crimped and he couldn't get sufficient flow through it. That led to congestive heart failure and a trip to the hospital on Christmas night where he stayed for about 9 days. There was a procedure that he could have had done, but to be very honest daddy was done. He just wanted to go home to be with his Lord. A stroke 12 years ago had left him unable to garden, mow his lawn, work, or do anything else that he loved. He also suffered from a fracture in his back 3 years ago that wouldn't heal and no doctor could find a way to get the pain under control. He went from a cane to finally a walker and toward the end had trouble even standing up with his walker. He was pretty miserable. This was not who Daddy was. And 12 years is a long time to be miserable! So when he decided he did not want to have the procedure done, we brought Hospice in to help make him more comfortable! We are so very grateful for Hospice! Sunday of last week he had an event of some kind that left him unresponsive by Monday morning. He was taken to Stella Maris to their hospice unit. Monday night when us kids left so that our Mom could get some sleep, we all said our goodbyes to him because we knew it wouldn't be long. When I left him I told him I loved him. I kissed him and then I said to him "Daddy, just go ahead.... Go ahead and run into Jesus's arms". On my way home I heard one of my favorite songs on the radio. That song is called Running Home by Cochran & Co. If you don't know it, I'm going to give you a few short lines from it. The end of the song goes like this:
Gonna run this race 'til my final stepGonna sing this song 'til my final breathLet the weight of this world goGonna be no tears, gonna be no painAnd when I see that smile on my Savior's faceI won't be walking, I'll be running home
I sat in my car listening to the song and cried but smiled at the same time, just picturing what that would be like for Daddy. And a very few short hours later I got the call. That's exactly what Daddy did. I can picture it in my mind. No Walker. No back pain. No struggling to breathe. Just running with a huge smile on his face into his Savior's arms!
I am heartbroken, but I also feel relief for him. He's found peace. He's home. Not a doubt in my mind.
This is the best story I’ve ever read about another person. Linda what awesome read. What a testament to your Dad!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful tribute to your dad.
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