A Good Life?

How do you know when or if you have lived a good life?

Last week I was down in Florida with my sister, we were helping our Dad get ready to move into an assisted living facility.

It was definitely challenging but we accomplished a lot during our stay.  As we were getting to the end of boxing things up Dad began to reminisce more.  I'm sure as his life was unfolding it didn't occur to him that the events will keep adding up and adding to his story.


He joined the Navy right after the US declared war on Japan.  I'm sure it was an interesting experience joining the Navy since he had never seen the ocean his entire life!

After the Navy, he married my Mom, took up upholstery as a trade, built a house by himself, well technically he built two houses, the first house he, my Mom & my oldest sister lived in while he was building 'big' house, the first house then became our garage!  He had three daughters. As a family we traveled the country and camped out in our pop up camper.   Eventually he went from being an upholsterer to working as an airline mechanic at Northwest Airlines.

Working for NWA afforded us the luxury of traveling via airplane which was exciting, to make me sound old, traveling back then was more glamorous than it is now.  Heated towels, free meals & drinks, you dressed up to fly and of course there were no security checks!

He was lucky to fall in love twice and be married to two wonderful women.  With the second marriage he gained a loving stepson & daughter in law, two awesome grandsons and a talented stepdaughter.  When he retired he and his second wife moved to Florida and lived his dream, which was to never have to shovel snow and be able to play golf daily.  In Florida my parents had the time of their lives, they made wonderful friends, traveled and entertained endlessly.

Even after the death of his second wife, Dad was blessed enough to meet a woman whose friendship has been a life saver the past several years.

With this new chapter in his life I know that his story is far from over even though he might think it is over.

So, how do you know when or if you have lived a good life?  I guess you don't, or maybe you do but it is only when you hear others describe your life can you sit back and say "D***n I guess I did pretty well!"

I don't know about you but I have my fingers crossed, in hopes that my life will be mildly interesting!

Keep smiling and know that God loves you and so do I.

L