The blueprint. The architect. The predecessor. The Old Man. The may who has made the most positive impact is (and always will be) my Dad. I wrote on this prompt last year and I think I did a good job of articulating what my dad meant to me. I have embedded that post below.
For the sake of some new content, I’ve decided to tell a story about the Old Man that I didn’t share in last year’s post. Last year, I told the story about some sage advice my father gave to me on my wedding day. Now I’m going to talk about what he did for me as my marriage was coming to an end.
it was mid July 2012 when X one sent to me those four fateful words “I want a divorce“. I was unemployed at the time and I would be able to get my teaching certificate reinstated quicker in Michigan then I would’ve been able to do in South Carolina. So with a heavy heart, I made the decision to come back to Michigan.
The old man had told me that he was going to come down to help me move., Or at least he would try his damnedest too. I was preparing myself for the possibility that I would have to just pack up whatever personal belongings I could get into my car and make the 800 mile trip from Charleston to Detroit.
But as the final week of July went on, my dad started gradually circling around that last weekend. He was teaching at the local community college at the time and he only had office hours on Friday. He figured he would be able to get on the road once his office hours were done. We had talked about this as the plan. 
That Thursday afternoon at about 130, he calls me on my cell phone. I could hear the wind blowing behind him in the background, so I knew that he was in the car. The old man was calling to inform me that he and my brother were on the road, in Ohio already. They were going to stop for the night in West Virginia and get to see me on Friday evening.
Later that evening, X1 came home from work, so I filled her in on the situation, just out of common courtesy. She was floored!
X1: your dad is coming down here?
Rob: yeah.
X1: Why?
Rob: because…that’s what families do for each other.
I would come to realize not all families do that for each other. But that wasn’t my dad’s style. He had told me there was no way he was going to let me make the trip from South Carolina back to Detroit on my own; certainly not under the emotional drain of my marriage ending.
That’s the kind of man that my father was. Whether you asked for help, or he volunteered it, he would tell you when he was going to be there. Let’s say, on a Saturday, for instance. He would show up on Friday evening, with another pair of hands for help, a set of tools, (just in case you didn’t think that far ahead) and some snacks.
It was 10 years ago this past winter that he went into the hospital for what would be the last time. it will be 10 years ago this February that he passed. There isn’t a day that goes by. I don’t think about him at least once. Then moments like this, it feels like I lost him yesterday.
Thinking about the stuff going on with kid 1 right now, the way that he’s really butting heads with X one, makes me sincerely hope and pray that I’m half the father that the old man was. Kid 1 will be flying into town this Friday . I’m not going to yell at him. But I need to have some serious heart-to-heart conversations with him. he’s standing on the threshold of adulthood, but it seems like he’s decided to make all the very stereotypical dumb teenager decisions simultaneously.
I knew this day was coming, but it always seems so far off in the future. And kid 1 has been so levelheaded for so long, I felt like we were just going to breeze through to graduation. 
Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:
- The Boy Who Looked at His Feet
- Even White People Get Ashy
- The Tricorder in My Pocket
- Challenger 40: The Generational Echo
- Take Kid 2 to Work Day: An Unexpected Win
The article “For The Old Man” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.
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