Are you a fix-it kind of father? A very happy Father’s Day to you.
Visit joniradio.org to see photos of Joni's father.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with memories of my father.
Okay, with Father’s Day coming up, here’s how I’d describe my dad. He was a champion athlete, a hiker, a woodworker – actually, he owned a flooring company, so when he would take me with him on his estimates, I got to know a lot about parquet block flooring, herringbone flooring, oak, maple, cedar plank flooring. My dad grew up in Baltimore city back in the early 1900s and worked in his father’s coal business. So, in the predawn hours before school, even at 12 years of age, my father would hitch the horses up to the coal wagon and do his regular deliveries. Back then, there wasn’t central heating; there were coal stoves, and you heated your house that way. All this to say that because he worked with horses, he became an expert horseman. He was also on the 1932 Olympic wrestling team as an alternate and eventually was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame at Oklahoma State University. And my dad loved Jesus. My goodness, he did. So I think you can tell that my father was a self-made man; resourceful, comfortable in the out-of-doors; a man’s man who could fix anything. And so, when I broke my neck and landed in the hospital, that was something my daddy could not fix.
He was born in 1900 and so when I had my accident in 1967, that was the year he turned 67 years old. And as an aging man, well, I think the diagnosis of my quadriplegia almost overnight aged him another ten years. ’Cause there I was in a hospital room, lying on the Stryker frame with tubes running in and out of me, beeping machines, totally paralyzed. Daddy would come to see me after work in his jeans, a plaid shirt with suspenders. He’d grasp the edge of the frame on which I was lying, and he held it so tightly, I could see his fingers almost turning blue. And looking up into his eyes filled with so much love, I just knew he wanted to fix it, he wanted to make things better.
As I said, I was on a Stryker frame – a kind of a long, flat canvas. They’d turn me facedown on it to prevent pressure sores. Three hours faceup, three hours facedown for nearly a year. Anyway, Daddy wanted to make things better and so the fix-it man had an idea. He noticed that as I was lying facedown on the frame, I didn’t have much to look at except the floor tiles, and I couldn’t turn my head to see people who were standing over me. And so, my woodworking Daddy framed a mirror and affixed it so that you could position it at various angles.
One day after work, he brought in this amazing creation and, while I was face down, he slid it underneath me and adjusted the mirror. And oh my goodness, when he stood up, I could see him. I was laying facedown, but I could see him! His smile was big, he was so happy. Maybe he could not fix my medical diagnosis, but he could fix things so I’d be able to easily see visitors, hold conversations with nurses, and even watch a little TV, all the while facing the floor on my Stryker frame. My father was so, so very proud to be able to do something, anything for his newly disabled daughter. That was nearly 55 years ago, and my father has long since gone to heaven. And it’s why I wish I still had that mirror. But you know what? I’ve got the memory, and I treasure it to this day. Hey, I’ve posted a photo of my Daddy, a few photos I’ve never put out in public. So, visit joniradio.org and take a look. And if you are the fix-it kind of father, a very special happy Father’s Day to you from me, Joni Eareckson Tada.
© Joni and Friends