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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Board - Bored (01/12/23)
I Found Peace

I wouldn’t exactly say I was bored as I sat in my dads old recliner staring at the fireplace but it might have appeared that way to someone looking in the window, but what I was is heart broken.

My dad passed away a few months ago and I was here for the very sad task of getting rid of, what I felt was his life. Pack it up, give it away, throw out, but what was of no value to anyone now represented his whole life to me.
Tears rolled down my cheeks as I looked around, this was my dad, all of it had a story to tell about a moment, hour or day in my dads life.

As I got up to walk over to the fire place to get a little warmer I stepped on that squeaky board that Dad never fixed. I remembered that He said “it gives the room character.” Now that made we smile.

The one place I had avoided was my dads work shop. He was always in there piddling around with something. Might as well face it, I had to get all of it packed up. The place had already sold and I only had a week left to get rid of everything.

As I entered his shop I again broke down and cried. There were boards of every size laying around. Dad always said “Never know which of these boards will fit just right in my next project.” I stood in the door way and took a mental inventory, the smell of saw dust filled the air. As I walked in and crossed over to where we found him the day he had his stroke, I noticed a pile of boards on the counter, in front of the stool he sat on whenever he got tired. There was also a hand drawn plan on a an old piece of paper. This was the last project he was working on, the Hope Chest for my then 13 year old daughter. That is what every young girl in my dads day had at the foot of their beds. He felt it was important that his only grand daughter have one as well.

I looked at the plans and realized all the boards he needed to make the Hope Chest had been cut out and stacked on the counter ready to be put together. My heart leaped with joy when I realized we could actually finish this ourselves.

There had been one item I had searched for in the house and couldn’t find it anywhere. It had really concerned me because I knew my dad would not let this item get far from him. It was the very thing that kept him going everyday of his life. As I started stacking the boards for the Hope Chest I spotted a very dusty book behind them. I noticed had worn and well read it was as I brushed the dust away. I was over taken with thankfulness to be holding my dads Bible. This was the one book I always saw my dad reading, the one book he taught us from and the one book that made him the wonderful man he had been.

Out of everything that my dad owned, I couldn’t have held a more important piece of my dads life, then this dusty old Bible. I felt this was a gift left here just for me from my dad. I could fill the love he had for God and us as I walked out of that little shop that day with that Bible close to my heart. I felt a peace come over me and I knew my Dad was with God and I would see him again one day.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Terry R A Eissfeldt 
01/24/23
A really beautiful story.
Thanks for sharing - Blessings
Linda Lawrence 
01/25/23
I like your story. One thing that seemed inconsistent to me was a Bible being dusty when it was used every day. But, I can understand everything being dusty in a shop where wood is sawed. Anyway, it's a good story.
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
01/25/23
This is a sweet remembrance of your father. I can feel the pain in the MC's voice. I'd urge you to find a grammar resource and really go over the different rules. You have quite a few run-on sentences that could be fixed by a comma or semi-colon. Double check words like fireplace and granddaughter. A quick look in the dictionary will tell you if they are one or two words. Also possessive words like my dad's Bible need an apostrophe and words linked together to make one word need hyphens like thirteen-year-old granddaughter. This is my favorite online resource that will help you with the grammar rules:
http://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/commas.htm
Each section gives a little quiz so you can understand what you might need to double check before your final copy. You did a nice job of writing on topic and brought both words into it. You have a nice message and a story to treasure forever.