Family

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Is This My Tribute to Dad?

MY FAMILY ... ME ... and DAD

We had a very hard life. I was always sickly. I had delicate health. My Mom, too, had delicate health. She had been a twin and lost her sister, Helen, in infancy. Dad always said that my Mom must be very weak because she lost her twin and many times twins can be fragile (they can even feel each other's pains, I understand).

... And I come from Mom. So perhaps that is a reason for my delicacy. I was even told that it is truly a miracle that my Mom was able to give birth. I certainly don't look delicate, but I assure you I am. I always say I do get better as I get older ... maybe because with each passing day ... my Faith, Hope, and Charity grow and grow and grow.

When the kids in school were sick, they got over it in a week. It would take me FIVE weeks to recuperate from same. I always struggled. School was sooo hard for me. My Mom never ate well. She loved her candy. She never drank milk. Because of that factor, I may have been born with a malformed system. My brain, too. As a child I struggled with studies. The homework my friends accomplished took an hour or two. Each day it would take me FIVE or SIX HOURS to get ready for the next day. I would memorize and memorize for tests. Dates, etc. I could never comprehend studies. I would excel and obtain very good grades. It was the mechanics that I excelled in. I was able to remember dates for a test. The next week came and I studied and studied and memorized and memorized. However, the studies from the week before disappeared. I guess my brain wasn't developed enough to retain so much.

I always wanted to do secretarial work but the nuns in school said with my good grades, they would not let me take the business course. I struggled through Algebra, Geometry, Chemistry, Latin, French -- and to this day I remember NOTHING. How I ever made the first or second Honor Rolls, I never will know. God was definitely with me. I received good marks when I studied all the mechanics of the courses, except everything left me within days.

Why am I talking about all of this? To tell the world I struggled, but ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH HOLY GOD, ONLY BELIEVE. In my schooldays, writing one paragraph was a real struggle. Today the words disco and dance across my keyboard non-stop. I can't get the words down fast enough. THAT'S THE POWER OF GOD. I have three books written. I may still revise them and take articles out or in ... and let God, through some friends He has recently brought me, help me with any needed revisions. I also have a line of greeting cards that I've prepared. My little business is called "The Tri-Color Gold Shoppe" (which to me represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, my real Tri-Color Gold!).

And all of this was possible because of my parents and my grandparents and my brother Paul and a very special love from our dog, Ko-Ko, and all of my dear, dear friends whom God has brought into my life. And ALL my doctors and social workers whose help has been beyond compare. One day I said to Dad, God can choose someone weak to accomplish His greater purposes. And, Dad, who was watching TV, said, "Yes, the 'Weakest Link' of all." (a TV program)

Dad's name, Andrew, means "Manly." And yes, Dad is very manly. He has a strong personality and you can say he used reverse psychology to make me well. He was tough with me and I never understood it until now. When it is almost too late. He used TOUGH LOVE. (I remember reading about an organization of that name to help weak people.) Tough love has worked for me.

Mom left for Heaven 13 years ago. If she can hear me now, she was my best friend. Uncle John who left this earth in '87 was my GREATEST ROLE MODEL. He was very sickly for many years. YET, HE NEVER EVER COMPLAINED. One day I said to Uncle John something about "carrying my cross." As sick as Uncle John always was, he scolded me and said, "None of us have crosses, only Jesus had one." Days before he died, he said to me he wondered how many people would attend his funeral. "Probably not many" he said. Well, God honored my saintly Uncle John because when he passed onto Eternal Glory, his was one of the largest funerals that our Church ever had. That's my God. People criticize Uncle John to this day ... but I want to say that criticism is unwarranted. Some people he did huge favors for and they pay him back with constant criticism. One person in particular I am thinking about who Uncle did great favors for, for several years, paid him only $1.00 a week as payment, and whenever I see her, she never fails with the criticism for him.

Uncle John should be canonized a Saint, in my humble opinion.

This week my Dad is scheduled to go to the Hospital for a serious procedure. Right now I am grieving for my wonderful Dad that he must go through all this suffering. Pop's incomparable love I never will fully understand. I'm not sure if You, Father God, will bring Dad home from the hospital or if this will be my farewell Tribute to Dad. You may take him into Your Promised Land, along with Mom, and all those who went before in our family tree. May they be rejoicing now as I solemnly grieve. My grieving, should You take Dad away, I know, will be transformed into grieving Joy in the coming days when I contemplate the work of Your Holy Hands, Father God, and Your Holy Mysteries.

Before it's too late to tell my beloved brother, Paul Andrew, may I tell him that his love has been a very tough love, too, and within the mysteries of God, Paul's love, I think, has been the Greatest of All. For the last few years, Paul has had the responsibility of taking care of Dad's every need. God sees all things, and I thank my kid brother for his help with Dad ... when my ill health has prevented so much.

In humble Faith, Hope, and Charity,
and In Universal Love,

Diane-Lynn Broda

copyrighted: lifelong


TO ALMIGHTY GOD BE THE GLORY FOREVER
AND EVER AND FOREVERMORE!

ALLELUIA! AMEN!

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