Wednesday---Story Tellers #3

Hi everybody. 

Time again for Wednesday and story telling hosted by shannon at http://asouthernbellewithnorthernroots.blogspot.com/, and it's a fine time we have here, too.   Join us and read all the interesting stuff the others have come up with.

I would like to introduce you to my father-in-law, Steve.  This was the gentlest, softest-hearted man you could ever meet, here pictured with his lovely wife.

When Good Guy and his siblings had all left the nest and/or completed their formal education, she returned to college, living in Marquette during the week, and returning home late on Friday night.  Steve worked on the road himself and would return on Friday.  He often headed to visit my father, who was housebound and in a wheelchair as a result of multiple sclerosis.

They had a strong friendship, because Steve never treated my father as disabled.  He was always Just a Guy to Steve, and Dad appreciated that courtesy.  He'd spend Sunday afternoons at our house, too. And in those days a "can't miss show" was Lassie.  It never failed.  When Lassie had performed her act of heroism for the week, Steve would be wiping his eyes and blowing his nose.  If we'd glance and him and smile, he'd say "I guess my dog allergies are kicking up."

When I discovered that my stepson had never read, "Where the Red Fern Grows", I bought it for him and told him it was a family test.  He wasn't adopted if he bawled when he read that book.  He passed with flying colors. 

Nobody could tell a funny story like Steve could either.  Good Guy is a good joke teller, but not as funny as Steve was.  I'm grateful for my many happy memories of him.  He never knew that Good Guy and I ended up together, since he was already gone by that time, but I'd like to think that he was happy for us.