Noted In Passing

This one is mighty hard to write and I have been conflicted over writing it all weekend long!

Friday, as I chugged down to an antique sale I was to do for the next three days, I had a call from Dutchman ... his father had at long last died. 

I have mentioned his father before in on my blogs as his health began failing a few years ago.  Irish, well educated, one of the most stubborn men I have ever met ... and one of the most violent men I have ever heard of.  In todays society, he would would have been imprisoned about the time Dutchman was 5 for gross child neglect and abuse.  He was NOT a nice man.  Conversely, he was a rocket design engineer and he was one of many whose efforts put us on the moon.

He fancied himself as Mr. Fix-it, unfortunately every problem required a hammer because it was the only tool he understood.  I can still remember one summer vacation back at his home and Dutchman and I were going to go to a movie.  We found him under Dutchman's Opel Kadet wailing on something with a hammer.  He decided to fix the transmission for Dutchman!  Yeah,  we took a bus and bought Dutchman a new car later that week.

Another time he wanted Dutchman and I to watch soccer with him, but we had planned an evening out.  So, he decided that we must be gay and while cursing us to the core of our creation - threw a cast iron table at us - perhaps 200 or more pounds.  We were about 18 feet away, as it sailed past us!  It took out part of his dinning room walls and a door to the basement!  We ran for the hills!

And this man, the most violent man I have ever even heard of - met Jesus at the foot of the cross one Saturday morning after he retired.  The transformation was beyond belief.  It is a shame that his children were all grown by then as they could have used a father whom loved, rather than hated everything - including himself.

As for him and me, he eventually grew to accept me once he figured out that his second son (of four!) and I were not lovers!  Gees, really?!?!?!?!?  He got me a job with NASA on the Apollo rocket redesign and as he grew older I was often helping him with documents for his retirement and pension.

These last two years, I am not sure if any part of his mind was still on planet Earth, but I liked helping him in his need, as well as his wife's.  And as with most families where trouble rules, his kids were unable to do much to help him because the history of whom he was - was more real than whom he became.

So, to Perry, you were a part of my life for 43 years, the last 15 being a witness to the miracle what God can work in a man's heart and life.  I look forward to seeing you soon ... but not too soon ...