Today, I want to honor my deceased father. He passed away nearly 30 years ago. As a young child and his only daughter, my dad was everything to me. He was a skilled farmer by trade, but he was also a WWII veteran, a hero, a mechanic, an electrician, a builder, an inventor, a veterinarian, almost a doctor, a jokester, a shrewd individual, and by far the most brilliant man with an 8th-grade education that I ever knew. Wedged between an older and younger brother, I did almost anything to get his attention and approval. Dad was my biggest cheerleader in my youth and my harshest critic in my later years. Dad’s photo journey.
Here are excerpts from my memoir, In Search of Pink Flamingos,
From Chapter – Stuck in the Middle: …By the time I turned fourteen, I regained Dad’s trust. He bragged with pride to his friends, “Give Sue any vehicle and she could back the damned thing up square!” Those were rare moments of approval. And I treasured them.
Rejection of my ideas came often as a teenager. When I found my destiny to become a nurse and join the Peace Corps in Africa, he rejected both. Here was his response: Excerpt from Chapter – My Ticket Out: Dad roared, …“Why don’t you stay and help people here?” Rejection was familiar to me, but this time his words cut deep. My legs quivered and the papers [the Peace Corps application] rattled in my hands as I searched for what to say, hoping God would help me with an answer. Out of nowhere, the words left my lips. “Dad, you were in the Army and people like you joined the military and served their country abroad. And well…that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to serve my country, just like you did. JFK said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.’”
The rest is history; I became a nurse and joined the Peace Corps in Africa at age nineteen and the larger world called to me.
From Chapter – Forgiveness is Freedom: We Greisens are fearless, determined, defiant, and smart. The qualities of my parents echo through me daily. I often see Dad in some passing gesture when I pull a stray weed from my garden or chew on the shaft of grass to taste its sweetness.…
Much later in life, I forgave my dad for the times he could not show me the acceptance and approval I wanted and needed. However, I embody many of my dad’s strong traits and without reservation, I love and appreciate all he gave me.
In June of 2024, Dad would have been 105.
I’m thinking of you today. Happy Birthday and Happy Father’s Day, Dad.
Click here for In Search of Pink Flamingos in Print or eBook.
Feel free to share your Father’s Day memory and click the Like button below if you feel the urge.
Susan E. Greisen 
Sue – Very nicely said with great understanding. I have a sense of how hard it was for you, and I hope your father would be very proud of the woman you’ve become. Stay safe, Paul
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Thank you Paul, in my final meeting with my dad that I wrote about in my book, I hope he really did understand. However his Alzheimer’s was quite Advanced then. I can only hope. Wishing you a wonderful Father’s Day with your two wonderful sons.
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Susan,
I’m glad you made peace with your Father before he passed, despite the later history with your parents.
My Dad passed away Memorial Day weekend in 1995, the same weekend my wife’s youngest sister got married, so it was a roller-coaster of emotions that weekend and into his funeral.
He was a World War II combat veteran, a survivor of the Bataan Death March and a Japanese POW for 3.5 years. Of the 99 men in his light tank company, only 35 survived to the end of the war, he being one of them. He too was a hero, saving a buddy’s life on the March and I actually saw him save a young girl who fell into a river in the early spring when I was a young teenager, while we were there fishing together.
He was an electrician, a Boy Scout leader, a church and union leader and a damn good father. While I would have gone into the service had I been drafted during Vietnam, I think he was glad I chose the Peace Corps given his wartime experiences.
We enjoyed fishing and Scouting together and I believe he and my uncle did a lot to shape my life and value system, providing me a strength and persistent quality to never give up, to do right and to maintain one’s integrity. His faith was his rock that helped him survive as a POW under terrible conditions. I was fortunate to be with him when he passed; why my Mother and sister were not, I don’t know.
I do miss him. The local radio station in my hometown replayed a recording this past Memorial Day weekend done in 1984 of several tank company survivors, including my Dad, where they shared their wartime experiences. It was somewhat emotional, but a good feeling to hear his voice again. I am forever blessed!
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