Mr. Farris

   My Daddy

My dad has been on my mind a lot lately. They recently found out the cause of ALS. Which is awesome because that means they are closer to finding a cure... or at least medicine that can help with pain for those that have ALS. (learn about ALS here) With all of this circling my mind for the last couple of days I had an interesting experience tonight.

I had a guy randomly ask me tonight if I was Mr. Farris' daughter. After I told him I was he started with a story. He said in the second grade every day after school he chopped wood to earn money. He had a life savings of $35 and he kept it in a wallet in his jacket. One day he took his jacket off at the play ground and forgot it. The next day he couldn't find it. A couple of days went by and my dad pulled him into his office and asked him how he was doing. He started crying and told my dad he lost his wallet and his only jacket and his parents were going to be upset. My dad pulled the jacket out and said, "I happened to walk through the play ground and saw the wood chips on the jacket and knew it was yours"...

The guy that told me the story is in his late 30's now and he was crying when he was telling me the last part of the story. He said he honestly believes my dad saved his life. To me it was a jacket with $35 in it, but the way he worded the story I could tell that my dad had this very special place in his heart. I'm not sure why my dad saved his life, but I believe him.

After that I decided that I needed to call it a night.

It's strange how being back in this area brings back so many memories for me. It's bittersweet. Some days I can handle it and some days it's hard. I've lost some great people. Some passed away and some moved on and are in different places in their lives... It makes me thankful for all the great times I've had in my life and all the memories i'll never forget. Life is so short and I know I take that for granted. One thing my dad always taught me was that no one was perfect but we should learn to love them anyways.