Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: fathers (06/06/05)
-
TITLE: Daddy, Please Come Home | Previous Challenge Entry
By Linda Stauth
06/12/05 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
This is one of my earliest memories of my father and one of the better ones. My dad entered prison shortly afterward.
On good days when he was home, I remember a sensitive caring man. Father would cry when mom forced him to discipline us. He made us laugh with countless, goofy stories, taught us to fish and sometimes treated us to a bottle of pop, against mom’s wishes. It wasn’t fair. He was trapped behind bars. What was he guilty of?
Other times when he was freed, he would tell us kids to gather all our friends and we’d have a good old-fashioned game of baseball in the field. One time he was running backward to catch a pop fly and he fell in a gopher hole. Hurriedly, I raced to find him shaken but ready to play again.
One winter he built us an ice-rink and nearly died in the process. Mother, concerned that he was out in the frigid temperatures too long, peered out the window to find father face down and nearly frozen to the ice. Treatments in prison had rendered his balance and judgement ineffective.
Professionals did their best to help him but the most they could do was release him on the occasional parole. Shock treatments, new medications and hospital stays were only temporary fixes. You see, my dad suffered from incarceration of the mind. A life sentence placed upon him by unseen forces and events. Could it have been his traumatic past or a chemical imbalance? Either way, I was robbed of the father I needed.
Most of his life he was shackled and chained, in bondage to sadness, depression and suicidal thoughts.
My father died at the age of 72 from cancer. Although I miss him, it is a great consolation to know that he knew Jesus as his Saviour and Lord. Praise God, in heaven there is no jail.
Jesus came to open prison doors and set the captives free. (Isaiah 42:7)
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
Blessings, Lynda