[00:02.28]Dad’s Mandolin
[00:06.89]My father was a self-taught mandolin player.
[00:11.14]He was one of the best string instrument players in our town.
[00:14.84]He could not read music, but if he heard a tune a few times,
[00:19.17]he could play it. When he was younger,
[00:21.45]he was a member of a small country music band.
[00:23.92]They would play at local dances and on a few occasions
[00:27.58]would play for the local radio station.
[00:29.66]He often told us how he had auditioned and earned a position
[00:33.48]in a band that featured Patsy Cline as their lead singer.
[00:36.45]He told the family that after he was hired
[00:39.13]he never went back. Dad was a very religious man.
[00:42.84]He stated that there was a lot of drinking
[00:45.30]and cursing the day of his audition
[00:47.25]and he did not want to be around that type of environment.
[00:50.38]Occasionally, Dad would get out his mandolin
[00:53.46]and play for the family. We three children:
[00:56.06]Trisha, Monte and I, would often sing along.
[00:59.63]Songs such as the Tennessee Waltz, Harbor Lights
[01:03.78]and around Christmas time,
[01:05.04]the well-known rendition of Silver Bells.
[01:07.81]“Silver Bells, Silver Bells, its Christmas time in the city”
[01:11.77]would ring throughout the house.
[01:13.34]Dad loved to play the mandolin for his family.
[01:16.68]He knew we enjoyed singing, and hearing him play.
[01:19.83]He was like that. If he could give pleasure to others,
[01:23.71]he would, especially his family. He was always there,
[01:27.90]sacrificing his time and efforts to see
[01:30.20]that his family had enough in their life.
[01:32.10]I had to mature into a man and have children of my own
[01:35.02]before I realized how much he had sacrificed.
[01:37.68]In August of 1993 my father was diagnosed
[01:42.15]with inoperable lung cancer.
[01:44.05]He chose not to receive chemotherapy treatments
[01:47.32]so that he could live out the rest of his life in dignity.
[01:50.04]About a week before his death,
[01:52.00]we asked Dad if he would play the mandolin for us.
[01:55.02]He made excuses but said “okay”.
[01:57.18]He knew it would probably be the last time
[02:00.29]he would play for us.
[02:01.92]He tuned up the old mandolin and played a few notes.
[02:04.84]When I looked around, there was not a dry eye in the family.
[02:08.73]We saw before us a quiet humble man with an inner strength
[02:12.43]that comes from knowing God, and living with him in one's life.
[02:15.74]Dad would never play the mandolin for us again.
[02:18.50]We felt at the time that he wouldn't have enough strength to play,
[02:22.13]and that makes the memory of that day even stronger.
[02:25.22]Dad was doing something he had done all his life, giving.
[02:28.54]As sick as he was, he was still pleasing others.
[02:31.78]Dad sure could play that mandolin!
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