Willy's Letter to Dad

Hey dad...

I wanted to write to you about daisy. She is being a pain in the ass. It seems she doesn't have any memories of you of her own and she wants to have some of mine and everyone else's. So I wanted to check my memory about a few things with you.

I wonder if you remember that time when I was 5 and I had those nightmares? 3 nights in a row I woke up in a sweat because some kid at school had told me he saw a little girl being burned at the stake by a group of devils in the canyons behind our trailer. you spent a Saturday morning roaming the canyons with me to prove it wasn't true. I was afraid but you made me look behind every boulder and in every crevice. A couple of times you even lowered me into places I couldn't have gotten out of but you would always pull me back up after I was confident there were no devils. Finally, I was satisfied that I'd been lied to and we headed home. I remember finding a $5 bill on the way home and you took it and said we would spend it later together. You still owe me that... just in case you forgot. However, I haven't been afraid of the devil since that time so you can just keep my share. You earned it.

I bet you don't recollect that time you got me all excited to work on the rambler? I figured we were gonna rebuild the engine or something. Imagine my disappointment when it was just an oil change and took only 15 minutes. I figure you owe me about $2.50 cents for that too. But since you probably sparked my interest in mechanical stuff, you can keep that too. You earned it.

Remember the letters you sent you me all those times you were in westpac. I found them a few years after you died and, since I didn't remember them being so young at the time, they seemed like new to me. They were all pretty much the same, how you missed us and wished you were home and they smelled like a ship.

I know you remember the times I went to the base pool with you on the weekends when you worked there. I spent hours in the pool in between the recruits coming in to get their training in water survival. You used to tell me to go off the high dive while all the recruits huddled on the pool deck watching me. You figured it would shame some of them into trying harder to overcome their fear if they saw a 10 year old kid diving from the 3 meter board. But there were some guys that were plenty scared of the water and more than once I heard screams coming from the pool area while I was in the showers. When I looked to see what the commotion was about, it was either some recruit that was afraid to even get in the water or one that was afraid of jumping off one of the platforms. More than once I saw them get in the water... with some assistance from you or one of the others lifeguards there. I always wondered how anyone could be afraid of the water. Anyway, just in case one of the other lifeguards complained about their cigarettes being gone, I smoked a few of them while I was there. So I guess I probably owe you about $5 so you can pay them back. Do you take visa?

Oh! I bet you remember what your advice was to me that time I came to see you in the hospital shortly after your operation. I wasn't going to be old enough to get in for another 6 months so they had to sneak me in late in the evening. I figure you didn't know if you were going to live or not and decided you couldn't take the chance of not seeing me again. The fact you lived for 3 more years can't change the truth that this was basically what you considered to be your death bed. It seems you had a couple of words of advice to give me that night. I sure do wish I could remember what they were but I was only 10 then so you'll have to forgive me for being too distracted to listen.

To be honest dad, I don't remember much more than this about you. It seems most of my memories don't include you, even before you got sick. I believe it was rick that pointed out how much you weren't there for a period of time. Unfortunately that was the time I would have had to remember you by. Too bad... I hear you had a great sense of humor! Oh! That reminds me of what the advice you gave me that time in the hospital. You didn't really think I could forget it did you? "Don't be afraid to cry and don't ever loose your sense of humor." Well dad, I am still afraid to cry... that or I never found it does much good... but I still have my sense of humor. If you had anything to do with that, I owe you a debt of gratitude I can never repay. I just wish you had spent enough time with me or lived long enough to show me yours.

Anyway, this is just a little letter back to you in response to all those ones you sent me. I sent a copy to daisy since she doesn't have any memories of her own about you. I hope these few I have help her out a bit.

—Willy Dial

In His Own Words: Glen's Prayer for His Family

Written in 1964 while in Balboa Naval Hospital

Heavenly Father up above
Please protect the ones I love
keep them always safe and sound
until I can be around

help them to know
and help them to see
that I love them
and help them love me

And dear Lord help me to be
the kind of man they would have of me
Hours, years and days may pass by
but my love for them will never die

Keep us now, and keep us forever
Happy, loving and always together.

—Glen "B" Dial