This morning we celebrated the life and legacy of my beloved father-in-love. As the family has come together over the past few days, I have loved sitting and listening to the memories coming forth from each of my husband's five siblings, his mother, and other friends and family members. Although I heard the story many times, I sat down with my mother-in-love and asked her to tell me again about how she met her husband.
She and a few girlfriends had gone to the Frostburg American Legion one evening, as they often did. One of her friends, who was very shy, saw a young sailor across the room and asked, "Rosalie, will you go ask him to buy tickets to take me to the Glenn Miller concert?" Rosalie, who is not shy at all, agreed. However, when she asked him, he said "I will buy the tickets if YOU will go with me." Rosalie told him that she couldn't do that, so he said, "Why not? Do you think you're too good for me?" Of course, she denied it, and told him that the other girl wanted to go with him. He told her that he did not like the other girl and that he wanted to take her. Rosalie looked around and discovered that her friend had gone home in a huff and left her stranded there. When she told Lowell, he told her that he would drive her home if she agreed to go to the Glenn Miller concert with him. She did, and they dated for awhile before they married and began to establish their own home and family.
My father-in-love grew up without knowing his own father, and spent part of his life being raised by the local firefighters in the area. In spite of this, he became a very dedicated family man, and raised six children who loved and honored him. He spent his time working at his career, contributing to his community, and teaching his children the value of hard work and how to be a good father. Lowell lived out a quiet yet rock-solid faith. My husband gave the message at the funeral today, and he made the statement that his father was proof that you did not need to know a father to be a father. He had reasons related to his past to be a less than stellar father, but he put all that behind him to reach for that higher calling, and my husband was able to honestly say that he does not have one bad memory of his father. His brother shared how it was a high honor rather than an insult when someone would try to anger him by saying, "You're just like your father." What greater legacy could you leave than that?
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