...happy birthday to you...

Today my Daddad (my Mom's father), Thomas Lyman French,Jr., turns 91. He is the reason I am going back to Kansas City tomorrow for an extended weekend. Now...Daddad is not a perfect man. He has some characteristics I do not agree with, but those certainly do not make up most of who he is. I love him very dearly. When my Mama (his wife) died when I was in fourth grade, he started coming to our house for a visit every afternoon. I have grown very close to him over the years.

Daddad grew up in San Antonio, Texas with his parents and his four siblings : Olive, Claude, Dorothy, and James. All of them have passed away. He had a very accident-filled childhood. For example: he was nearly scalped when he got in a bicycle accident. They took him to the pharmacist who poured peroxide on his skull while sitting at the soda counter. There was also the time his brother was swinging around a box of dirt on a rope (who knows why- it was the 1920s?!) and when their father told him to quit it he just let go and it smacked Daddad in the head. Then one time he was riding on the outside of a Model T, headed to play football with some friends, when the car tipped and fell on top of him. They just erected it, played football, then Daddad got his leg checked out.

His father died about a month before the depression, but luckily left coins in the safety deposit box. My great-grandmother Georgia did people's laundry, Daddad worked, and they took out some coins each month. He worked at an ice-cream factory for awhile, which is appropriate considering he is one of the biggest chocolate fiends I have ever met! I used to open cabinets in his kitchen and find them lined with one-pound Hershey bars! Part of that is he still has a depression mentality (the man saves everything), but mostly it's because he eats unearthly amounts of chocolate! Anyway...Georgia died young as well. My Daddad always gets teary-eyed when he talks about how she had to cut her hair (it was red and when it was down, trailed behind her on the ground!) because it caused too much pain.

So, Daddad moved to Kansas City due to his job and met my Mama, Marjorie Jane Benton. He spotted her having a soda with some friends after a bible class, strolled up, swung one of his long legs over a chair, sitting in it backwards, and said, "Howdy girls, my name is Tex." He asked her out soon after, and thirteen days after their first date, they were engaged. They got married a few months after that. Daddad left to fight in World War II. He was in the military police and saw lots of things in Europe, and met some very interesting people. My mother was born while he was away...he did not see her until she was seven or so months old. When he returned, he worked for the IRS investigating people who wanted to work for the IRS. This is why he is a notorious questioner of everything!

He has never tasted coffee in his life, though he enjoys a nice, cold Coke. He hasn't had a drink since Mama got sick. She, and in turn he, were very social people in their day. Never been a smoker. Has had some fairly major health problems, but is still going. He gets sad that he can't recall things well...he is a story-teller, so it hurts extra. He has traveled the world - Europe, both during the war and later on with Mama, Africa, Mexico, the U.S. They were planning to go to Australia, but then she got sick...There is so much more...

Daddad has instilled in me a love of family- living and past, history, collecting (you should see his stamp collection!), not to be too extravagent and to share what you have, work hard, be educated,and so much more. I realize that this could be his last birthday...that's why I knew I had to fly home. He and I are very close...he told my Mom, "I can't believe she is coming just for me!" He is my last grandparent. They were all so important to me, and I can't bear to think of having to let go again, but I know that's how things go. I don't think he's scared and I am not for him, or for what I will feel. But...this is a celebration of someone who is luckily still here despite all those head traumas at a young age! Here's to you Daddad! (even though he won't read this...he's not into computers) Happy Birthday and I will see you on Saturday. I love you. xoxo