The best lessons learned are the ones from your past
You learn them slowly, learned when you didn't bother
The lessons you learn from watching your father
Away in the city, a few noted with scorn
But later they learned, he was taking a class
to get a degree and he needed to pass
He missed the birth of his only son you see
To pass a final to earn his accounting degree
Not the best trade, some said, what a louse
But the promotion it earned him, got us our house
Times with my father often were few
He would leave before dawn, return home at dark
but on weekends, we would go play in the park
4 sisters and me, my mom and my dad
quickly used up the time that we had
Soccer and baseball were the sports we did play
Left him tired and sore at the end of the day
A coach for girls soccer, he said I'll do that
an umpire for baseball, he had that down pat
He tried hard to be the dad that he should
Spliting time among 5 the best that he could
He took me aside, his face troubled you see
we were going to move half a continent away
but he would go alone, the rest of us would stay
It would be so hard, things would be tight
but he did as always, what he felt was right
He never complained, justfying means, never ends
His actions allowed me to graduate with my friends
First one foot gone, then the other was lost
For my sister,it was worse, I am sad to say
Less than 3 months before her wedding day
He groaned and tried, sometimes he'd weep
Trying so hard, his promise to keep
Long before the doctor felt that he should
on 2 prosthetic feet, he struggled and stood
He walked down the aisle, there at her side
His leg full of pain, His face full of pride
For her a wondrous gift, greater than any other
To be given away by her Father, instead of her brother
A sound brings me back, as I wipe off a tear
The daughter in my arms makes a cough and a coo
I glance at the clock, it's a quarter past two
I turn slowly in the dark at the end of the hall
and whisper a song to my baby so small
Making babies is easy, being called Daddy is earned
As I try to live up to the lessons I've learned
