Doc

Today is a sad day. Today marks a year since my step-dad went to be with the Lord...

Doc,
When I first heard the news of your deteriorating health I found myself devastated and feeling helpless, and it made me think that I really wanted to be sure that you knew exactly how I felt about you and that you knew how truly loved you were.
When you became a part of our lives, almost twenty years ago, you filled a place in my heart that desperately needed filling. You sacrificed and loved my sisters and I like we were your own children and I am so grateful for your love. You were a wonderful role model of a Christian, a father, a husband, a friend and a very revered doctor. I can hardly find the words now to express my gratitude for all that you have done in mine, my mom's and my sister's lives. God brought you to our family as a father and a friend. Looking back, I have so many great memories of you: taking painting classes together, taking me to see model train layouts (which you loved), taking my girlfriends and I to get doughnuts the mornings after sleepovers, teaching me to drive and later laughing about me almost driving head-on into a brick mailbox and then surprising me with my first car when I turned sixteen, my high school graduation, always being there as I grew from a girl into a young woman, getting me ready to go out to Texas Tech, coming out to Lubbock to present me to my sorority and then moving me home after my college graduation, supporting me as I found my way into the "working world" and then standing next to me on my wedding day and proudly giving me away to Frank. There are so many memories and for all the ones that I listed there are so many in between. I can't fathom what my life would have been like without you there.
The bible says Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." John 11:25-26 and "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 As believers, we know that we are here to serve the Lord and by loving my mother and us girls, amongst many other things, you served the Lord well. Near the end it broke my heart to see you struggle in your earthly body. ALS held your mind captive in a body that was dying. "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4... You are free now!
With Jesus' spirit in our hearts we know that we are only here, on earth, for a very short time as we wait to be taken home. We, as believers, have eternal life!
I cherish the time that the Lord gave us together. I miss you.
Thank you for being my dad.
I love you very much,
Meme