First I Was A Son
Two years ago this morning, my Dad passed away. To me, the date April 14th has now been redefined forever. As this date neared, and ultimately arrived, I have had many folks share their warm…
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John Beal
It’s Been a Year Dad: Lessen or Lesson
May, 2017 Lessen or Lesson:
It’s been a year now, 12 whole months since a miraculous life here on earth expired. I remember the weeks leading to the day that we all knew would come sometime. There was so much support, many prayers and efforts, regardless of being tired. Amid the details though, it wasn’t too difficult, a beautiful love, to find.
It's Been a Year Dad: Lessen or Lesson
It’s been a year now, 12 whole months since a life here expired. I remember the weeks leading to the day that we all knew would come sometime. There was so much support, many prayers and efforts, regardless of being tired. Amid the details though, it wasn’t too difficult, a beautiful love, to find.
He Was There
Christmas Day 2016, my first Christmas without my Dad here
I Stood In The Rain
The other day, I went outside seeking a connection to the those now gone.
Specifically, I was looking for the one we loved, the one we call, John.
On My Mind and More
Well, sometimes I look at Facebook, and I respond literally to the question: “What’s on your mind?” Today I had a whole slew of answers, some of which I verbalized into the empty room surrounding me. Mostly they were superficial and not predicated on anything too important.
The Railing
16 weeks have passed. The days come, and they go. The hours are filled with the monotony of routine, and the tasks that seem to work their way into every open time slot. There is…
Hardest One To Lose
I don’t know which is the harder one to lose; the one you love, or the one who dearly loved you. ~ Steve Beal Sr. 2016.
Father’s Day Gleam
June 18, 2016 – Father’s Day Gleam.
Tomorrow is Father’s Day and I wanted to get this off of my mind before the actual day. Over the last couple of weeks this thought has been creeping into my psyche a little more often every day. Until these last few days, when it has downright bugged me, bothered me, and otherwise haunted me. I asked my wife yesterday, “What am I supposed to do on Father’s Day, with no father, for the first time in my life?”
I suppose I still don’t know the answer. But I know that I miss my Dad an awful lot.
Missing Dad
I’m here in the yard, at the house I grew up in. I mowed the lawn as I usually do. But I’m missing my Dad. He’d be sitting right here, outside in the warm air.…
Last Trip to Canada
In recent weeks, Dad had talked with my Mom about how he could not wait to take (I would drive them) Mom back to Canada again this year. Then, on April 14, 2016, God intervened, and took Dad to his eternal home.
A Dad and This Boy
Dad, can we gather round the table one more time and just let loose?
Oh, we’d laugh til tears, you, my siblings, Mom, this boy you called moose.
I look at the hoop and wonder if I’ll ever see that arch ever again.
Dad, you were one the best lefty shooters there has ever been.
You weren’t well, but I never thought this day would come so soon.
Dimly, I thought that maybe when the day came, I’d be somehow immune.
The Man is Gone
Dad’s presence was felt, his impact impossible to miss. I don’t think he was looking down from heaven at us, because I am hoping he had better things to do, like lose himself in his mother’s waiting arms, or to look his Dad in the eye and hear the words, “Well done son”. Maybe he was off creating comedy from nothing with his twin sister June. Perhaps he was walking the streets of gold and getting to know his brother Roger, who passed away as a baby, before any of the other siblings.
Dad
See, me, and my generation, we hope to be measured one day in the same breath as the great people of the generation before us. In that generation the simplicity of life lived was the stunning portrayal choreographed by the depth found in the intricacies of magnificent minds with the perceived time to approach extraordinary. I am just a man, my Dad was a great man, a great man of God. His new place in heaven ensures what should always be, that I’ll look up to him. I do, and I will.