Interestingly, Patriot Day and Grandparents Day is the same day - September 11th.
On that fateful day, I was doing laundry. The washer and dryer was downstairs in my mother-in-law's apartment. She had her little TV playing as I walked in and out. I caught that there was breaking news, and stopped to watch. My mother-in-law came through, and we realized this was serious. I spoke with my husband on the phone who was at the school campus where my oldest children were in school. The school had taken measures to secure everyone. I went and locked my front screen door that I usually left open for cheery sunlight to come into the house. Fear of the future had become a valid reality.
The next thing I did was call my Dad. I told him I would be afraid to let my children be children and play out in our amazing 2 acre backyard. I'm pretty sure he reinforced during that phone call his belief in the need to bear arms and do whatever necessary to protect our family. His words were true, "America will never be the same again."
America is not the same as it was before that September 11th, but it is also not the same for another reason. America is missing fathers like my Dad. My Dad has been in Heaven one year.
Where are the fathers who love God, their wives, their children, their church family, their friends, and neighbors? Where are the men that stand up to evil no matter who it is? Where are the men who leave their grandchildren memories of fierce love, happy times, teaching moments, and a pattern to follow? Where are the men who are faithful within a body of believers to support, to teach, to edify? Where are the men who are not ashamed to tell the world about the Lord Jesus Christ? Where are the men who sacrifice, if necessary, fame, fortune, niceties, and desires in order to have their children educated with a Christian worldview?
Where are the men who take responsibility for the provisions of their families? Where are the men who give good gifts just because they love?
Often, either one of my children or my Mom or myself will say, "That's what PawPaw would do," or "That's what PawPaw would say." If you knew him, then you just know. I grieve that my children do not have him here anymore, but I am thankful that he left who he was in their hearts.
Men like my Dad are what began the America we once knew.
-jlw 9.11.22