THE GENTLE GIANT
(I wrote this poem on March 24, 1985 about my dad. I was daddy's little girl, and I love him very much. He's a pretty good size man and when I was small, I thought he was a giant, as little girls sometimes do.)
Since writing this poem my dad has passed away. He died January 12, 2001.
He would work out of town for weeks at a time, trying to make a living, while mom tried to keep me in line.
But when he came home, I was the first to be there, cause I loved him so much and no one would dare-to come between me and my dad, cause I was jealous and it made me mad.
My dad and I were always close, my mom was the one who corrected the most. "She needs a whipping," my mom would say.
"She wasn't very good while you was away." So dad would take me to the bedroom and shut the door.
He'd take off his belt, beat the bed and say "holler, till you can holler no more."
My mom never knew till I grew up and became a wife, that my dad never whipped me one time in my life.
I thought my dad to be a giant of a man, and yet how he could be so gentle, I don't understand.
May 26, 1925-January 12, 2001
(Written in 1984)
I have only one life, God has given it to me.
I know He has a reason, but I don't know just what it is, you see.
Could it be to live for my husband?
Give him my life completely?
Or could it be for my three sons, whom I love so very deeply?
Or maybe it's for the world, to gain all it has to give to me.
Then again, maybe it's just simply to gain great popularity.
No, it's none of those things.
Now I see!
He gave me one life to live for Him.
Totally and completely.
