Happy Father's Day!

Knowing that tomorrow will be a little crazy......services at NorthStar (continuing Meet Joy series - Hungry Man special) and some action on the diamond (Titans are currently 2-0 in the USTBA State Tourney) - I wanted to say a Happy Father's Day to my dad Charles Linch!

I guess nothing could conjure up Father's Day memories more than being at a baseball field. My dad was an incredibly dedicated & hard worker in business (he went 35+ years while only missing one day of work). He taught me so much about loyalty, honesty and the willingness to work hard to move up. However, he also taught me about family. I don't know how he worked his schedule, but I do not ever remember dad missing one of my baseball games. He had his little cooler, lawn chair & umbrella and he would find a quiet spot behind the plate and he would sit & take in every pitch!

I do not remember him ever saying a word to me during those games but I knew he never missed a thing! We would replay the game over & over as we would ride home and it never crossed my mind that he could have been a million other places! On days we were not playing, we were sitting at a ballpark together somewhere dissecting hitters and other teams in hopes that we would play them and put our notes to work! It was years later when I finally realized that you had provided me an opportunity that you did not have and that though you had to work as a teenager and give up your gift of baseball, you allowed me the chance to work at baseball & to be a kid! I will never forget you saying, "You have the rest of your life to work - be a kid and enjoy playing and see how far you can go". I think you were as excited as I was about getting the scholarship to play for Coach Richardson at Liberty - you sure deserved it as much as I did!

I still remember looking up while in college on a March afternoon in Lynchburg and seeing my dad in the bleachers at Liberty with his luggage from the airport and realizing that he had flown up to catch my DH. Those were some great memories! He had did not pour I love you's & hugs but what he did give me was a love that was spelled "T...I...M...E" - He was there and we bonded not by organized sitting together but by doing life together and by just being there.

Thanks Dad........though you were quiet & I am loud and you sat in a chair at ballgames & I pace the dugout & field - you taught me what it means to be there for my kids & to provide for them the very best way that I can! Everytime I feel the hot blazing sun and the take in the dust swirling around me on a field - I think of you and all of our years together on a field!

Happy Father's Day dad and thanks for taking time for me when I know (now) that you didn't have to!!!