1st pic is of Ned and Daniel, and Preston and the boys at the waterfront where Mama used to bring us to feed the seagulls. 2nd pic is a pic when Grandma Jeanie tells us to make funny faces! :) 3rd pic is Daniel, Jake, Kleigh, Ginger, and Travis at the amazingly good seafood restaurant in Corpus Christi. I think it was Pier 49? 4th pic is all five kids piled in front of Spongebob. As much as I HATE spongebob, I do love the quiet time he sometimes creates for me. :) 5th pic is my dad's gravestone. We went to see it. Mom just had it completed. It says:
William Joseph "Papa Bill",
May 28th, 1951-December 6, 2006.
Beloved Husband & Father of Seven. I thought we should have engraved on the back......
Only the good die young
Dad would get a kick out of that I think. He loved his westerns. I think about Dad so much. Especially today as a little girl got baptized after church. I watched her with her dad, and thought about my special baptism day with Dad. I got baptized in Grandpa Whiting's creek. It was beautiful. My friend Leah Sherman and I got baptized on the same day. We had matching white outfits. They shot the last water snake an hour before my baptism. I wish I had more pictures of the creek. It had a waterfall. I didn't really appreciate it when I was younger. I loved it there....just exploring. Kids don't get that chance very often anymore. There are so many bad things, and bad people in the world that I am afraid to let the kids out of my sight. Well anyways...I was just thinking how special my baptism day is in my heart, along with all my beautiful priceless memories of my dad. We miss you dad. I think about you all the time. Things you enjoyed. Things you sacrificed for me. I found a thought that I really liked while Preston was deployed. It says .....
As testimony fills my heart,
it dulls the pain of days.
Now that Preston is home again, this thought means something totally different to me. I think about you, Dad when I read this thought. I will think of and treasure all the beautiful memories you gave me. The wonderful family that you and mom gave me. I will hold on with all my might to the beautiful gospel that you and mom found when you were so young. I will continue to build my testimony as I raise my children and teach them the things you and mom taught me. I will be the calm, trusting, good listener that I watched you be. I will try to remember how special it felt to just have you listen to me....more special than any material thing you could have offered to me. Material things come and go....and those memories are forever. So I will try to remember these precious things you and mom taught me as I raise my boys..... TIME is OH so important, LISTENING, PATIENCE, LOVE, SACRIFICE, all the things that I am working so hard to at least work towards. So every time I read the thought above ....I think about you Dad. I miss you so much, but am trying hard to choose to be happy (like mom always says). To choose to remember every second I got to spend with you, and to remember that we are an eternal family....and I will see you again....and you will be the same barefoot dad I remember. I love you Dad!
2 comments:
that was nice Katy. on the top of dad's marker it says "All is Well". that is what i would whisper into dad's ear the last week. i wanted him to know that "all is well with the opfel family" - just wanted to make sure he knew that. of course he knew that. and i think it is.
i'm so mad at ned for closing his eyes in that picture. always happens. cute pics tho'.
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