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%20 years ago this week my life would change forever...20 years ago this week my life would change forever. I was an 11-year-old boy in the sixth grade who had just wrapped up all but one week of mv school year and made* jstraight As on all my report cards! We started out the door that afternoon - Mama, Amy, and I - on ourwway to the baseball card store. After all that hard work, I was being rewarded for my scholastic achievement with the entire 1987 baseball card series I'd been coveting.There was a knock at the door....Two men stood on the back steps and wanted to speak alone with Mama. Two young children anxiously stood inside, no idea what was being discussed and seemingly no reason to concern ourselves with it. Daddv wasn’t there this Sat-4urday afternoon because his job with the Athens Utilities had him on call that week in the rotation. The only thing my sister and 1 could really make out from Mama’s conversation with the two fellas was our daddy’s name.wAs it would happen, their actual words were something like, “Randy’s been shocked....” You see, these two men were from the utility department too.Mama didn’t say much as she gath ercd n\v sister and me into the car. We had been told enough to be aware of what was going on and where we were going. We weren’t going to the baseball card storeanymore.Fearing the worst, 1 began to cry. Alot of mv rears may have been fromjust not knowing enough of what was going on in the moment. Whatever the catalyst, 1 knew something had to be verv wrong.The minutia of the following 30-60 minutes isn’t all that significant to the story. Hut 20 years later 1 still can see the look in the face of theHR doctor as he hesitantly affirmedthat my daddv had died.V • '■ (F‘Randy was indeed “shocked.” Working with electricity has its evident dangers and that afternoon it got the better of an encounter with my daddy. This is the event that impacted my life on May 20, 1989.Over the last. 20 years I’ve experienced so many emotions from that day. I’ve gone through sadness, anger, frustration...and the list goes on. Tve thought of the father I lost. Tve thought of how mv mama tch losing the man she intended to live with forever. I’ve thought of my sister never tible to be a “daddy’s girl” again. Tve considered how my grandparents must feel to have lost the babv thev once held in their arms and witnessed grow into a fine man. I’ve reflected on the lives he touched in his friendships, encounters, and interactions he had with so manv he’d come to know.My daddy was a sportsman too! He enjoyed sports and was darn good at 'em! Baseball always seemed to be his favorite and was the first he taught me to play. .Someot the fondest experiences 1 haveof those vears with him were of us9playing ball in the backvard of our house in the country 1 recall usgoing to my first ever Major I^eague Baseball game in 1986 to sec the Atlanta Braves! I le Liked the Braves and I always thought how cool it'd be to tell him now how great of a run the\ had in those vears after hewas gone. *I contemplate often on the all the great things I could tell him if I saw him todav! Sometimes I wonder what 1 would tell him first. Would I tell him that the Crimson Tide won the National Championship a few vears after he died and they’re making their way back now!? He sure wouldn’t have wanted to miss that! Would we talk about turkevwhunting? Sports? What...?Would I tell him that his two chil dren earned college degrees w hile he was gone? I le was alwavs so proud of our academics. W ould we go into all the achievements of Amy and me over the last 20 years? The failures? These questions swirl through my head all the time.%Daddv was 33-vears-old when hew wdied that dav; I'll be 32 later this summer. As 1 approach what 1 view as a threshold of the age of 33, the things I consider most now are what my daddv and 1 would be man-to-man. 1 find mvsclf com-M -*— m A ^paring our successes and failures to that point in our lives. Just as I did as a boy, I imagine how we could do so many things together that I see other men now doing with their fathers. W hen I coach the T-Ball team that I volunteered for, 1 think ot touching young lives in the positive way that he did. 1 think ofmbeing a husband and father as he was. As I ramble on aimlessly 1guess I can sum those things up to say: all grown up, I still want to be just like mv daddv.w w()nc other thing happened that day 20 years...and it was a good thing. I would come to learn the remarkable love, strength and determination of mv mama. She is the one9that made everything ok as “only mamas can do.” I saw her tested and know to this dav 1 will neverwtulh understand how much. I can never know what she felt and how it tried her. spirit. But 1 do know she triumphed through it all. My mother is the most important person in the world to me and the last 20 vears have demonstrated that.wAs a society we seem to place sig nificance on milestones in terms of how many years since something took place. 1 appreciate the opportunity to share with whoever chooses to read this how my life has been impacted over these vears. I’ll acknowledge that brevity has never been a strong suit of mine.There have been lots of emotional ups and downs since that stormy May day. Though the last 20 years have had a void with the passing ofmy father - and 1 miss him everyday - 1 can also still celebrate hiswlife and who he w as. Tor 11 vears¥I had the greatesr father anyone could w ant and nothing bur terrificmemories! That’s something to celebrate...!I'm so proud to say that mv fatherw as Randy PriestwMiss you daddy... *- Clint Priest
Newspaper Details
Athens News Courier
Athens, Alabama, US
Sun, May 24, 2009
Page 1
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Anonymous
USA 07 Feb 2019
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