Dear Dad,

Dear Dad,

It's my first father's day without a father.  Oh, how I miss you.  There are so many things I long to tell you.  Like:

1.  Your grandson doesn't say the word "other", he says "yudder".  You would laugh so hard at him when he says, "I need a YUDDER cookie, Papa!" we would have seen your missing tooth.  I miss seeing you laugh like that.

2.  Your older granddaughter leads our goat to the milk stand, just like your older daughter did.  You would be so proud.

3.  Speaking of that goat, she looks and acts just like Alfred.  You would smile and shake your head...and then take her for a drive in the cab of the pickup with her ears flopping in the breeze.

4.  Your younger granddaughter loves to sit in recliners and snuggle.  You would have held her and played with her toes and she would have giggled.

5.  Your grandson loves to ride tractors and knows the names of all of them.  You would have burst your buttons that he knew the little A was a Farmall.  He also calls his overalls "shoulder britches", just like you.

6.  Your grandson has a widow's peak, just like you did when you had hair.  His does not have the big curl on top, however.

7.  We sheared our sheep on Friday and they look just like the Carson ewes.  No one else knows what that means.

8.  You would have said the clerk at the store the other day "had an IQ about room temperature".

9.  I found a letter you wrote me by hand when I went to state FFA convention one year.  It included the phrases, "There's no one here to run the 720." and "We had salmon loaf, wish you were here."  I miss your dry-as-the-Sahara humor.

10.  There are so many, many times I want to pick up the phone to tell you something and wait to hear you say, "Yeeeaaaahhhhh..."  Thank you for always listening, Dad, and letting me talk.

Oh Dad, I love you very much.
Always,
Annie