My daddy was the best, I was daddy's little girl until the day he
died. That was the hardest day of my life when I had to say goodbye!! My
daddy lived his life to the fullest, he was born outside Louisville,
Kentucky and picked cotton and helped raise two brothers and a sister when
his father passed away early.
My father moved to Chicago, Illinois in the early 60's and served in
the Army for 3 years up in Alaska building the Alaskan Pipeline. He was a
E4 Specialist in heavy machinery and that's really all I know about his
service information.
He met my mom sometime when he first moved to Chicago but not too
clear on when. They were married in 1965 the same year I was born. I was
my father's only child and yes I was spoiled rotten and loved it.
My father owned a hobby shop that sold trains, cars and other things
before I was born, and shortly before I was born he owned a Tavern called
the "Alibi" which had lots of great country singers, I have some
of the pictures from then. Even Mae West was at my daddy's tavern.
My mom convinced my daddy to move from Chicago to the suburbs when I
was 4 years old and at that time somewhere he purchased a "Shell
Station" which he owned and operated until he passed away. Another
hard thing for me was to sell my daddy's business which he had for 30
years and I grew up with all my life since I am only 33 years old.
My daddy also was the "President" or "Chief" as
they called him "Big T" of the "Fugarwe Tribe" motor
cycle club in Chicago, which had a chapter in Alabama and Louisiana too. I
don't know much about the club but I do know that every Christmas they ran
16,000 bikes in a parade which raised toys for "Toys for Tots"
and my father had been doing that since before I was born also.
My daddy did not ever get to meet my baby daughter named Taylor Lynn
and yes her first name is after my daddy. She was just 19 days old when he
passed away but he did know about her and was such a proud Granddaddy, he
wanted to be so bad but unfortunately never had a chance to enjoy it.
I am doing this page for a few reasons, one is to let everyone know
how much I love my daddy still to this day and yes I am crying right now
so if I'm not making to much sense I'm sorry. But another reason I am
doing this is because the hardest thing I had to do was make the decision
to take my daddy off of life support systems. He had made me promise the
year before that I would never let him stay on any machines if anything
ever happened to him. So for that reason I did follow his wishes because I
live out of state and when he had his stroke he also had an aneurysm burst
at his brain stem so he was considered "brain dead" by the
specialists. So I am asking everyone to make sure they have a living will
to express their wishes and not ever put this on any family member. Still
today I have nightmares because I did follow his wishes but did I really
do the right thing will always be there.
I also found a cemetery up in Chicago where he lived that had a hill
with beautiful trees and his favorite thing was to sit under a shade tree
while resting after working out in the yard. So I picture him sitting
under that shade tree and smiling at me because we loved one another so
much.
