Not too long before my son got out of the service he called me and said "Dad, I just want to let you know that I'll be staying in Seattle once I get out of the Coast Guard"
"What, you mean for a while? You'll be coming back at some point right?
"No dad, I won't be coming back to California. I love Seattle. this is where I want to live!"
We talked about it for a while then we hung up. I shared the news with my wife. it was a difficult thing to accept.
I must have looked a little depressed the next morning as I was walking into work. A friend of mine asked "What's wrong?" I told him about the conversation. He looked me in the eye and says to me, "Sounds to me like you raised a man!", and just like that I was standing tall again.
He was right. My wife and I reared him up from boyhood to manhood. She nurtured but I trained him. I taught him to be one of the good guys, with no exceptions. I taught him how to think on his feet and to rely on himself. I taught him to stand his ground. Together we taught him to love freedom and his country.
We didn't buy him his first car. we didn't have to, he bought it himself. It was stolen not too long after he bought it but he never complained about it.
He got into trouble from time to time, and he was full of mischief as a boy but he never gave us grief. He was a great kid. He is a good son and a good brother to his sisters and a great uncle to his nieces and nephew.
He has his own ideas about the country and the world. Sometimes we agree and sometimes we don't. He has his own mind and he keeps his own counsel. I would expect no less.
My wife and I miss him everyday but it's balanced by the love and pride that we have for him. As a man, he has met and surpassed our expectations.
Our son was born on this day thirty-three years ago. Happy Birthday Son!
The above photos were taken at the Huntington beach Pier in 2010.
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