Ben Poser, The Man and the Smile

My Father was a Great man, and I say that with all the pride a Son can have for his father. He was great man in my eyes because here was a man who barely went through 8^th grade in his education, yet he was able to do things you and I would never dream of tackling.

I remember my Dad re-building a car engine, building our garage and breezeway, roofing our house, putting in a well pump, dry walling my basement, and fixing anything, and I mean ANYTHING that needed fixing.

He was also a man who could never walk past a broken lawn mower. No matter how beat up it was, or how neglected, somehow within a day or so of bringing it home, it was fixed. I really think one of Dads missions on earth was to fix neglected lawnmowers, and boy did he do it with a passion. Even when Dad was in the nursing home, he commanded Mom to go and get one of those poor neglected beasts he had seen while taking one of his daily wheelchair rides with Sue. Even when he could barely use his hands, he wanted to give it a try. I think he figured he would just direct Mom how to do it.

That passion my Father had for lawnmowers also carried over to his Family life. He loved my Mother and me and both of his Grandchildren Erika and Jim, and within the last few years, he began to think of my wife Susan as the daughter he never had. My Father would have given the world to us if we asked for it. My Father also had a kind and giving heart, and he opened that heart up to his neighbors and friends, and to anyone he met. It didn’t matter to my Dad if he didn’t know them, if they needed help, he was there.

My Dad also loved to create things. Take a walk in our neighborhood, and I bet you can guess which house was his. There are windmills and spinners and ducks and geese and wishing wells, and porch swings, all made by his skillful hands. There is also a woman bending over in her garden and a man peeing on the bushes. OK, so maybe he had a little too much free time, but he loved to build with his hands.

My Father had a WONDERFUL smile. Take a look at the pictures, and you will see what I mean. My Dads smile touched a lot of lives. He brought joy and happiness to his Family, his friends, and his neighbors. He taught me a lot of life lessons also. He taught me that anyone could do anything if they set their minds to it. He taught me it was good to help your neighbors, because it was the neighborly thing to do. And he did have great neighbors and friends. He also taught me that love was sometimes hard to express in words, but that it could be shown in deeds and thought. And he also taught me personally to never give up. So may times I was trying to do something and couldn’t get it to work, and would be just about ready to give up. Dad would walk over and show me how it was done. It scares me now that I am expected to be that person. But in my Fathers honor, I will do my best.

I miss him so much, but I take comfort in the thought that he is still here with us. He is in the memories of each and everyone here who spent some time with him. Somehow, he touched everyone’s life a little bit, and if you look around, that was a lot of people.

I also take comfort in thinking that my Father is like a mighty sailing ship, whose sails were set full and taunt. One day a strong breeze came, and caught those sails of his and took his ship out to sea. As I watched, slowly the boat got smaller and smaller, until the only thing that I could see was the sun setting on the horizon. I turned and said "The boat is gone, and I broke down and cried. But God said to me that the boat was not gone, that it was simply out of my sight that was all. If I could see that far out I would see that boat was simply sailing into a new harbor and everyone was welcoming it into the dock, and they were rejoicing.

So remember and take comfort, My Dad is still there, just out of our sight right now.

I know someday, we will be with my Dad again, and together we will sail forever.

God has promised us that.

Goodbye Dad, I miss you.

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