Father's Day Memories - mine and Maria's

Today is Father's Day My father has been gone since 1987. He is buried in the Council Family Cemetery on the farm he bought in 1942.
I don't need a special day to remember him. I think of him almost every single day. I suppose I am still trying to understand our relationship, or lack there of, when I was growing up.

I do know that he was a decent, hardworking man who felt his purpose in life was to care for his family. I did not understand him, although I have spent a lifetime trying to, and I don't think he understood me when I lived in the same house with him. However, as we both grew older, the chasm between us seemed to shrink a little.

I subscribe to Maria Shriver's Sunday Papers. Today she writes about her father and what he taught her.
https://mailchi.mp/mariashriver/fathers-day-memories-sunday-paper?e=ffd1f41c45

She has many good memories of her father and some great advice for fathers of today. I wish all men who are fathers to little girls, would read her words.


Girls need these things from their fathers:
love, approval and encouragement.

I am saddened when some men criticize their daughters and granddaughters and never say a positive word about them. It seems the girls never can live up to what these men think they should. In past generations having a boy called for celebration, while having a daughter was a disappointment. My father, like his father, had hoped for his first born to be a boy.

My sister, the first born to Coy and Lois Council felt that disappointment from our father all of her life. Later, after my parents had died, I found a letter from my father to my mother saying, "Tell that little girl she has a long legged daddy down in Florida who wants to see her." Although I showed that to my sister, she still felt his disappointment because she had heard him tell others.

Coy Lee Council as a young man

My grandfather, Tom Council,(1858-1911), held a chivaree when his first son was born. He ran around the house celebrating by beating on pots and pans and making a terrible racket just as some folks did after a wedding. Sadly, that baby boy died the next day. I never heard of Tom holding a celebration for the birth of any of his five girls.

With so many children growing up today without a father in the home or even in their lives, I am convinced that is the reason young men and girls develop low self esteem and turn to the wrong people often to lead them. A bad father may be worse than no father at all, and I know some who say they wanted their father to leave the house. A bad father can teach wrong values to his children, if he cheats on his wife and doesn't hold women in high esteem. It would be hard for a son to love a man and not follow in his footsteps.

I want to mention a man who is one of the best fathers I know. He is the husband of my niece, Lee, and father to Will, a fine young man who was brought up with a solid foundation of faith and love. Hat's off to Dave Bruggeman, a hard working, intelligent man who puts his family first.

Happy Father's Day to all the men who have children in their lives.

 Be the man your dog thinks you are.😃
😃 And your children will love you!