Week 6

"To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under Heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
     Ecc. 3:1,2

The call came around 6:30 a.m. on Super Bowl Sunday. Howard L Caulkins had passed away quietly after a short but intense battle with cancer. It was dad's third such battle with that disease in as many years.

I think at the end dad was torn between his longing to go home and be with Jesus, and leaving us behind. Of course that decision was God's and I'm pretty sure dad was ok with that. Today he is in that mansion on the street of gold that he so loved to sing about. I am happy for him.

My dad was many things to me in the course of my life. He was my baseball coach, mentor, teacher, crew chief, and my friend. When I was a teenager he would say "son, I have been everywhere you are going." At the time I thought he was full of hot air but as I got older those words would ring true. So many of the things he said to me in my youth, a time when I thought I knew it all, came back to me. Like most people I heard myself repeating those words to my children and said "Oh my gosh I am turning into my father!" As it turns out, for the most part anyway, that's not so bad.

He was the father of five, step-father to five more, and "grandpa" to thirty five. He loved the Chicago Cubs, college basketball, and the Tennessee Vols. Whenever he was asked about his vocation he would say "I'm a jack of all trades and master of none!" Dad spent time as a truck driver, auctioneer, facility manager, factory worker, courier, entreprenuer, and small business owner. He liked to cook, sing gospel music, work in his wood shop, and he loved his puppies.

There are of course many more things I could say about him having known him for 47 years. Right now nothing seems adequate enough or personal enough. So, I will finish with something I heard him say at least a hundred times. " We need two lifetimes to live. One lifetime to learn how, and one lifetime to do it right."

If only............

Howard L Caulkins

September 28, 1935 -

February 7, 2010