He Did It All

My Daddy raised me and my brothers. How? He had a schedule and followed it. Why? We were a very active family and life didn’t slow down just because my mom passed away. Sam played baseball, basketball, and football. I took gymnastics, played softball and started basketball in fourth grade. As Matt got older he played basketball and baseball. We were on the go most days after school, gone for weekend tournaments and in the summer, our schedules were even more hectic. The gym, court, and ball fields were our second home.

I know what you’re thinking, how in the world did a single dad with a full time job supposed to get three kids to different activities in the same day? Well…ok, thank goodness that some of our sports were in different seasons. But on occasion, there would be some conflicts. Still, how did he manage our crazy schedule? We didn’t have a wall calendar, and my daddy sure didn’t keep a planner in his pocket. We took it week by week. Daddy would sit us down on Sunday nights and in detail give us the schedule for the week. He would let us know who needed to be where, when and how were going to get there. On Sunday, he would already have us a ride to practice planned for say, Thursday evening if he couldn’t get us there. And all the games that we played, I can only remember a few times that Daddy missed. He missed a few of my games, maybe like 2, 3 tops and that’s when I was a freshman and Sam was a senior. He sat me down at the beginning of my freshman year and explained to me that he may miss some of my softball games to see Sam play baseball. He said he wanted to watch Sam play as much as he could since it was his last year. He didn’t have to explain anything, but he did and I am very grateful for that.

Daddy wasn’t just a planner. He was also the grocery shopper, the chauffeur, the punisher, the nurturer, the negotiator, the house cleaner (but we helped with that, we had chores), the teacher, the coach, the chef, and so much more. He was the good guy and the bad guy. He had to play both mom and dad. He had to make the choices for us and he had to do that alone.

My dad was the sole provider, and the decision maker for us. He made it to everything we did. We were his first choice and he definitely made us his priority. I do know that my brothers and I are very lucky to have such a caring and loving dad. He still to this day, would do anything for us. Through the years, he has proven that to be true. He didn’t just give us his time, but also his love. He put his life on the back burner to make sure we had everything we needed and more.

My dad is a real life super hero. He raised three kids alone. And by alone, don’t think we didn’t have help. We lived in a very small town, where everyone knew everyone. We also live in the same town my dad grew up in. So we had family that lived very close to us. We were very lucky to have so many people that were willing to help get us from place to place.

So if you ever think…I can’t do this, life is too hard, I am just going to quit. Don’t! Just take a minute and think about my daddy. My life would be so different, if Daddy let “life” get to him. He never gave up. He pushed on with each day and my life is almost perfect because of his actions.

I am not sure how he did it all, but he did.