I hate using "was" - and I find myself internally freaking out every time I accidentally use present tense. I even started crying in the car with my boyfriend this weekend over that simple word. My dad may have passed away, but I want to believe and need to believe he will always be an "is" with me. He will always be my dad, he will always live with me. To the world, maybe he is a was but to me, he just is.
My dad was a man of many trades: a retired deputy sheriff, a dirt track race car driver, a fisherman, a hunter, a Wal-Mart employee, an honorably discharged Marine, a home construction expert, a taxidermist. My dad loved animals and taught me to love them, too. He wore pants with holes in them out in public (which he more often than not had "fixed" with duct tape) because "If people don't like what I'm wearing, they don't have to look at me." He loved me and my mom and my sister and my brother. He cared about everyone and never about himself.
He was probably disappointed I didn't share his love of deer hunting and venison steaks, but I know he was damn proud of the person I am who he helped raise.
To me, my dad is.
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