DAD: Tribute to 'Old Pop'

My dad is nearly 89 years old. His birthday is coming up in September.

Pop recently sold the home he’d lived in for 58 years. He bought this little rancher on three-quarters of an acre in 1955. Pop married my mom in 1963. She had two little boys. We became a blended family that consisted of an L.A.P.D. young-cop dad with three sons, a pretty young widow, and… five little boys.

All these years later, all five of us boys, now in our 60s, still have our dad and mom with us. We’re spread out in four states, have wives, ex’s and kids and grandkids. With the money old pop has now, he’s paying all his bills to zero, making a couple of sensible investments and is gleefully giving a lot of it away to people and ministries he and mom have loved, admired and supported over the years. Literally, my mom claps her hands and stomps her feet with joy while they write the checks and get them sealed and stamped for the mail. Old Pop just looks at her and smiles…and gets a little misty.

None of his sons is worried their inheritance is being spent. We are loving the example Old Pop is giving us. I want to be like Old Pop. He has no bitterness or anger toward anyone. Everyone we meet after a bit of time tell me what a wonderful man and inspiration he is.

Pop and mom have several old age maladies that are going to end their lives sooner rather than later. Modern medicine has helped for sure in physical comfort and symptom relief for them. My brothers and I do what we need to do to give back to pop what he gave to us. We are making the best of the days we have left with him and mom.

I am telling this story because I truly believe my Old Pop is a living — and dying — example of a man who was and remains a truly faithful man; to his God, to his family and his friends. We all love you, Pop!

JON KEITH

Coeur d’Alene