I wrote this two years ago and rereading it I find the glorious irony and circumstantial significance of it simply fantastic. Not to mention the fact that it overwhelms me with a feeling of immense intimidation. You’ll understand once you’ve read it.
This is the story of three men.
One was a military man from out west, one a disc jockey in a small southern town, and one a star athlete. All three were family men. The backgrounds of the men were as different as their appearances were. One was of medium height and build, one was short and stocky and one was well over 6 feet and athletic. There were similarities, however. They all were responsible, hard working men. They all began balding in their twenties and eventually grew out of their hair. And they were good Christian men, all three.
The military man grew up in Wyoming, where ranching was the most prevalent way of life. Hard work was not rewarded, but expected, and he did his share and more. He and his siblings had chores that many would consider full time jobs nowadays. He played sports and was most fond of basketball. He played for the Newcastle Cagers and once set a district record for points scored in a single game by draining 36 points off of 12 field goals and 12 free throws. After high school, he joined the Navy and set out to see the world. His trade in the navy was that of an electrician and he was good at it.
While in the navy, he met, courted, and married a girl from a small town in South Carolina. The couple started their family in 1956 with a baby boy. Two years later a girl was born and it was eight years before the brother and sister got another sibling, a younger brother born in 1966 in Millington, Tennessee. The oldest boy was fond of sports and played whenever he could. The girl proved to be quite a scholar and from a young age excelled in school. The youngest boy was a bit spoiled and could be a brat at times, but his love for his big brother and big sister and was genuine. They all three loved their Daddy dearly and he gave all of himself to them and his wife. He worked long hours to provide for them and they had a good life, filling their lives with love and good Christian values.
The family moved from Tennessee a few months after the youngest boy was born and set up a new home in Smyrna, Georgia. A few months after arriving at his new post, the navy man came home from a long night at work and told his wife he was tired and was going to lay down. On the way to his bed he stopped to play with his youngest boy, who was now eleven months old. It was the last time he would play with any of his kids.
The navy man died in his sleep, leaving a wife and three kids. The newly widowed woman took her three children back to South Carolina and started a new life there. Years later, all three kids had their college paid for by the government due to the fact that he died while in the service. Even after his death, the navy man provided for his family.
The disc jockey had a family of his own, with a wife and two kids. He lived and worked in the same small town he grew up in and provided for his family by entertaining listeners all around the county with his radio show. His wit and love for a good joke, sometimes at other’s expense, made for a fun ride to work for hundreds of listeners in his small town and any others the radio signal would reach.
The disc jockey also played sports. He played on his high school’s football team and during one game in particular made a play that is still talked about today by those who knew him and were lucky enough to see it. They talk about him running at full speed down the field, so far ahead of anyone on the other team that the crowd was celebrating before he even reached the twenty yard line. Then they talk about how a few yards later, he tripped and fell, squandering any chance of scoring what was a certain touchdown. But the disc jockey loved a good joke, even if he happened to be the butt of it, and nobody laughed harder at that story than him.
The disc jockey’s life was going as planned until one day when his wife suddenly died. The laughs don’t come nearly as easy for suddenly single father with two children yet to raise, but he endured. He eventually met a woman who herself had kids and they combined their families. He became a stepfather to her children along with the two he already had. His new wife’s oldest kids were in high school, and so they were only around for a short while before heading off to college. They called him by his first name, but his youngest stepson, who was in elementary school, called him “Dad” and he became a father to a young boy who had not known one in his lifetime. He gave of himself selflessly, working long hours to make sure none of the kids did without, and, along with his wife, raised them in a good Christian home.
The star athlete was bound for glory by his junior year in high school. Having played multiple sports most of his life, he had made the decision at that point to concentrate on the one he loved the most, and that was basketball. By the end of his junior year, he had letters coming in from head basketball coaches whose attention he had garnered with his play. Big time college programs with legendary coaches. He would surely end up with a scholarship, go on to college, and then the sky was the limit. The level of success he had attained was the result of countless hours honing his skills, rain or shine, with or without other players.
The star athlete’s work ethic was impressive enough in and of itself, but was even more admirable when considering that at home, he was also the man of the house. His father had died when he was young and his mother had just recently remarried. Until that time, the only father figure his little brother had was him, and he was a hero to that little boy. Now, he didn’t have to worry as much about going to college and leaving his mother without a man of the house and his younger brother without a father figure. That position was filled and he could concentrate on which big time basketball program he’d sign with.
He would not sign with a big college program, however. He would break his ankle not once, but twice in a year and the offers curtailed considerably. He would instead accept a scholarship to a small liberal arts school and play his college ball there. He excelled athletically at the small school and met the woman who would be his wife there. He would later say those years were the most fun for him because he felt like he got to be a kid for the first time.
Today, the star athlete is in his high school’s hall of fame as well as his college’s. He led his team to the district tournament championship and subsequently to the national championship tournament his senior year and is still regarded as one of the best players ever to play for his college. He is now a successful businessman and he and his wife have three unbelievable kids. And he never stopped being a hero to his little brother.
All three of these remarkable men were, in their own way, heroes. They all gave selflessly of themselves and all three had a profound effect on one little boy’s life. I know this, you see, because I was that little boy. I was the eleven month old boy the navy man played with the morning he died. I was the youngest stepchild to the disc jockey. And I was the little brother to the star athlete. All three were, at one point, the man in my life, and anything good I have attained or become is directly attributable to them.
This is the story of three men. And one grown up little boy who thanks God this Father’s Day for blessing my life with them.
Re-reading this today, knowing that I am a Step-Father like the DJ and one day soon will be a Father like the military man, I can only hope that I live up to even half the example these three men provided for me.
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