Happy Fathers Day, Dad!

Today we celebrate our Dads by showing them that we care. We may do it by bbq-ing, giving them presents or just letting them relax. Today I did something I know my Dad could relate to an appreciate. I edged grass.

My Dad was an engineer, methodical, precise; a perfectionist. He took care of our 2&1/2 acres of property like it was his second full time job. The front lawn always looked perfect, like a pool of green that you’d want to roll around in and fall asleep. He had a push mower and a tractor. He NEVER drove the tractor on the front lawn because he said it was too heavy. The flower beds were perfectly lined up and the stone wall he built around one of the huge trees in the front lawn looks like a professional landscaper painstaking laid each field stone to this day.

So today, when I went to the cemetery to leave some flowers and have a little chat, I noticed that the around the edge of the plaque that marks his spot, the grass was starting to grow over a little. I thought that the cemetery maintenance was supposed to keep up with that. Anyway, I thought to myself, “This would have bugged Dad. I wonder if I have scissors in the car still.” I went and check the glove compartment and sure enough I did. So I went to work and edged the plaque by hand.

When I was growing up, people always thought that I was more like my Mom. As I went through my twenties and now halfway into my thirties, I think I turned out more like my Dad; always striving for perfection, even when not warranted or needed. Today, I was my father’s daughter, edging the grave marker, making sure that it was out lined tastefully and crisply. Clipping a blade here and there, blowing off all the stray clippings. I know that Dad would have gotten what I did and appreciated it. That made celebrating Father’s Day a happy occasion for me instead of the sad one it could have been.