I miss my Dad…………

I love Christmas, it’s my favorite time of year.  I love being with family and friends and celebrating our Saviors birth.  I do miss my Dad, William Pelle Fortney.  My father worked so hard to give my brother Homer and I great Christmas’, and birthdays, and summers.  He was devoted to his family and he tried so hard to never disappoint us, and he seldom ever did.  I guess that’s why I grew up to be the man that I am, I’m in a constant mission to be as good a man as he was.  On lots of days I feel I’m falling way short.  Parents are so important, they guide us and encourage us to be better than we would be without their help.  When we are young we can’t see it that way, we can’t understand why they just don’t understand!  The older we get the more we realize just how smart they really were.

My father taught me many life lessons, mostly by simply how he lived, how he acted, and how he responded to others.  When I was in high school he required me to go to work in the summers.  My friends were laying around the swimming pool while I was working in the Coca Cola bottling plant, loading the bottle washer or loading trucks.  I wasn’t to happy about this slave labor!!  One day at work, I was eating lunch, back then we brought it to work in a paper sack.  My father had been the manager of the plant some years before and the guys all knew him well and would often talk about him during lunch or breaks.  It became apparent to me that they really loved and respected my father.  I asked one of the older men one day why he thought so highly of my father.  He said, “Well your dad was the manager, the boss, he has the last word on everything, but he cared about us.  One day the bottle washer broke down, and we had to get it fixed, we couldn’t run the plant until it was fixed.  Your dad called your mom and said he was going to be late.   He took off his coat and tie and got a work apron and sat on the concrete floor and helped us until we got it running again!”  He didn’t have to do that, he was the boss.  He could’ve said get it done before you leave and gone home to dinner, but he didn’t.  You see your dad never said it but we knew he never asked us to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself!”

Many years later when my dad was almost the age I am now I asked him about that conversation I had with the guys at plant way back then.  He teared up when I told him how much the men cared for him.  I asked him about what G George Riley said, (the old man I had talked with).  He said that’s just the way you should do things.  A leader is only a leader if he will stand in the same shoes as his men.   My father was kind to everyone, he genuinely cared when people were having a hard time and he did things, often, with out anyone knowing,  to help them.

I’m not sure how things work in heaven, I don’t know whether they can look down occasionally and see how things are going here or not, I sure hope they can!  I know he would be proud of my brother Homer, he is just like dad, a truly good man.  I know he would be proud of my children, Scott, Wesley, and Catherine, they have all turned out better than a father or grandfather could hope for.  He would have loved my grandchildren, his great grandchildren, he would have had so much fun playing with them, and they would have adored him.

I hope if he is looking down and can see me, I’ve done right by him, and all his lessons.  In case he can, here is my Christmas letter;

Dad,

I love you, and I miss you.  Thanks for all those things you did to show me your love, even the hard lessons, I know now they made me stronger. Thank you for teaching me to be honest, to demand integrity from myself, and to forgive others.  Thank you for loving Homer and I, and Mom so much, you gave so much, sacrificed so much, and you never asked for anything in return.  I’m sorry I didn’t say this more when you were here with us. I know you thought that this photography thing was not a very good way to make a living, and in these days, it’s not, but it has brought me a lot of happiness and you always told me that happiness was more important than money!   You taught me how to be a husband, a father, and a man.   You showed me that the things people don’t see are even more important than the things they do see.  You taught me that giving to others in need, even when you don’t have much to give, brings a greater reward than you can ever imagine.   I wish you were here for one more day, I’d love to give you a bear hug and tell you all this face to face.  I will soon, when I join you there, till then Merry Christmas, I’ll bet the celebration up there is like nothing I could ever imagine!  Say Hi to Mom, and Ninnie, Virgil, and Nora, and Doug Blair, and all the family that has gone to be with you guys there.  I don’t know how often you get to see Jesus in Heaven, but next time you see Him please hug Him for me and tell Him, He has changed my life forever, and I can’t wait to give Him a hug myself.  I started to say take care of yourself, but I know there is no sickness, or pain or weeping there, so I’ll just say thanks again for everything, and I love you and I miss you!  See you soon.

Bill Glenn

Love those you care about while you can and make their Christmas special,

the pilgrim