I hear from so many lately about the loss of a loved one--human or animal and I personally have had 3 gal pals die in the last year. I guess it is the age I am or maybe it is the birth order---being the youngest----kind of funny to say that now at 50! But with the orb pix I and the loss of a friend's Father I am reminded of my own father. I have enclosed 2 pictures of my Dad, taken the same day about 2 weeks before he fell ill from complications of being one of the first gastric bypass patients in the nation. These complications happened 13 years after his surgery. My Father died a horrible and painful death and I his youngest daughter- a nurse for hospice no less --trained to help stop suffering--was helpless to ease him. But what I want people to know is what his life was like--- He was the youngest child of mountain folk---the name Skaggs is Norse by history and l am the descendant of those who came to this land not as wealthy land holders nor from indentured servants but rather a different class of folk who came here willing to leave the known world just to get a piece of land to call their own. Willing to work hard, and filled with a determination rivaled by none. Strong and healthy stock who lived long and loved well. A group of workers and thinkers and best of all Dreamers! My father was born with a pretty severe case of rickets caused by a lack of Vitamin D in my Grandmothers diet. My father was 11 years younger than his only sibling, my uncle. He was born at the end of the depression and my grandmother did not want another child, she blamed the lack of Everything on him. Throughout his life he could never win her true affection. But what my Father did with his life, while not extraordinary was, in fact, the catalyst that changes a family for generations to come. My Father at the time he graduated from high school was 6'5" with a 28" waist. He met and married my Mother while still a "stand-by" employee at the local steel mill. My Father had a beautiful singing voice--no training---just a God given talent---and there was a young evangelical minister who while traveling the country offered my father the opportunity to sing for him regularly---a singing job---wow---in 1950---that would have been cool, but he now had a wife and a baby on the way and turned this man down--this minister was Billy Graham?? Who would have thought? Fame and fortune beckoned at the door and was missed by my Father out of a since of duty. Family first.

.............

Family first was the number one lesson that I learned in my parents home. My Father, walked to work on his stand-by job whenever he had an opportunity to work. He walked the Union Picket line nearly 10 years later as he awaited the birth of his second daughter, me, to come into the world. A scary place to be I am sure. Not knowing how you will afford food/shelter/clothing for your family---but he believed in the Union and he believed in the right of the individual to make a LIVING WAGE for the days work he gives the employer. All of this time, my Father read---and he read, and he read. Along with reading he talked, and he talked, and he talked. He sang his mountain music everywhere someone would listen--I believe the man would have sung at the opening of a Bathroom if he would have had an audience. He used his music to met all sorts of people, from Governors- to street folks. My Father found them all to have a reason for being and a story to tell. The humanity of Man was my fathers true passion. Because Christmas had been so meager at the home of his parents---a few nuts and some fresh fruit and because he had married my mother--adopted by a "well to do" family who Celebrated the holidays completely--he became addicted to Christmas even playing Santa Claus for 27 years in my home town. He took the stories of the children and repeated them at home lest his own children forget the bounty they were receiving. He struggled with the inhumanity of one man to another. He listened, he learned, and he gave. He gave freely of his knowledge, his personal education, his music and his love. Because of him and my gift of knowing my own personal place in the universe, I am the first person in my family to graduate from college. My older sister, followed suit, many years later and got her degree as well. All of his grandchildren will be college educated. That educational leap was made by my Father is the true legacy of his lifetime. A college education is not about being smart as any college graduate can tell you--it is about learning---all kinds of things---but about being about to see the bigger picture if you will---knowing what there is to celebrate in this life. The arts, horses, beauty, kindness to strangers--! -love for animals--love for family--teaching me that reliability and truth to self are what NOBILITY is really all about. Just wanted to remember my Dad today. Thanks for listening