My memories of Dad are fading and he’s still physically here. I’m so glad I started this blog when I did and wrote down my most vivid memories before they escaped from my mind, but I can’t help feeling lost and befuddled that that’s all I came up with. You spend years, decades, loving a person, spending countless moments together, and the brain only recalls a dozen or so. What I’m left with now is a feeling of loss. I’ve emotionally and mentally lost my dad as well as the feeling of security that he gave to his family. He always took care of us. He had a positive outlook and a grandiose sense of self, so his confidence made us feel like the future would be okay. Finances wouldn’t be a problem, trips all over the world would always be a possibility, worry wouldn’t rob us of joy and peace.

Now reality has hit me. While it was awesome to grow up with that kind of safety and security, his failing mind led to some bad decisions the last decade and the rest of us no longer have the assurance of financial stability. Welcome to the real world at 50!

My teacher’s salary is more important than I ever dreamed it would be.

I guess the best lesson for me in all of this is money didn’t make the man. The man made money, but he made a lot of other things too. He made us laugh till we cried, he made us frustrated with his stubbornness, he made us listen to his stories until we couldn’t forget them even if we wanted to, he made us go on fantastic trips together, he made so many people happy, and angry, and relieved, and exasperated, etc! Money didn’t create the love we have as a family. Money didn’t give us faith or happiness or contentment. It wasn’t what kept my parents’ marriage strong. It did help us have fun taking trips together and kept us from worrying for a few decades, but all the best things in our lives didn’t come from the money. The best things in our lives have come from our faith, our love, our hope, and our commitments to God and to each other. That’s what King Jon gave us, and it’s worth infinitely more than silver or gold.

2 thoughts on “Money Didn’t Make the Man”

  1. You made me remember Jon at his hilarious best. He was always so much fun. I remember visiting his office in spring 1993 to find him unpacking a giant box of little toys to give his kid patients. He tried to persuade me to enter medicine in 1961, and I perhaps should have done so, but it seems God had other plans. Keep up your excellent writing!

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