I don't have a whole lot of Father's Day memories as a child but i do remember one in particular. The one we all forgot. My Daddy was not one for fanfare or big on getting gifts. Not sure why we (my siter, brother and i) didn't remember. We knew it was Father's Day. We had to have known. i was maybe 8 or 9, Susan and Mike old enough to drive. i just remember my mother fussing at us after church and then the three of us finding a nearby men's store open on Sunday (rare in those days!) i remember the sales clerk grinning at us three and saying "looks like somebody forgot what today is" i don't remember my daddy's reaction to opeing the box of black and brown socks. i remember thinking that's not much of a present and i sure wouldn't like it. i'm sure he was sweet about it and hugged us. he was a good daddy.
that was about the time period when we took "field trips" together. just me and him. places like the pink palace museum and Memphis Memorial Gardens. yep it's a cemetery. but this one had scenes and statues of the life of Christ that were beautiful works of art and he wanted me to see them. So i got to see these with my daddy on a fun saturday afternoon instead of a sad stuffy funeral. My other cemetery memory with my daddy is from a rare Sunday spent in his home town of Louisville MS where his parents are buried. we went for "Decoration Day." That was a really weird concept to me at that age. why would you decorate a cemetery? but it was a beautful sunny spring day and i became facinated with reading grave markers. Especially the very old ones-wondering who these people were and what they did everyday and how and why they died. i remember daddy attending the funeral of his aunt a few years later. He got to visit with family he hadn't seen in years. Got to eat really good food. He said, "I just hope people have half as much fun at my funeral." And we did. On January 11, 2011 we celebrated his humble life of coupon clipping, bible reading, church attending, family loving, faith instilling. even the funeral director made comments at the close of the service attesting to the evidence of this great, yet basically unknown man of God. And then we ate and laughed as cousins told their granddaddy stories. he would have had a good time too.
Happy Father's Day.
Devon Bell taken January 1, 2011 at his granddaughter, Angela's wedding, just 10 days before he went Home.
He was my friend Marla's dad during my teen years. He was was always telling funny corny jokes. He was serious about the things of God. He went out of his way to speak yo me and gave full attention during our conversations. He wasnt judgmental but would gently redirect my path w a question that demanded contemplation and biblical study before answering. He was a good faithful servant to others.
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