Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today my father is 104 years old! He died in August 1973 when I was nearly 31 years old. In spite of him being gone more years than he was here, the memory of him is still so very sweet, and my love for him is very strong. I feel sad that half of my children can not even remember him. I want to share with them some of the memories that I have of him.
He was such an influence for good in my life and in the lives of so many who lived in the Jameston Ward, outside of Shelley Idaho, where I grew up. He was a Bishop when I was born, and was a Bishop for 13 years, until I was about 9 years old.
I remember-

• He always wore bib overalls outside to work in. He was a farmer, and then as I was in my teen years, he started raising beef. I would much rather work outside with him than working in the house.

• During the spring he would pick a sprig of lilac, and put it in the button-hole of his suspenders. He loved the smell of them, and I guess I picked up that love also.

• I remember his smile.

• Telling us children that he wanted us to stay close.

• Telling us that we have a good name (Fielding),and to always honor it and never do anything that would disgrace it.

• Reunions were important to him...It didn't seem that we could come up with an excuse to miss one. Even when they planned the reunion for the day that Steven and I got married, he thought that we would come home for the reunion before leaving for our honeymoon.

• I remember how excited daddy was when he planned on taking all of his children and their spouses to Hawaii. We had such a fun time together!

• Santa visited every home on Christmas Eve leaving a bag of peanuts, ribbon candy and an orange. After one such visit, Santa couldn't get the front door shut. Daddy called out to him, "Just slam it Art!" (Try explaining that!)

• I remember the fun 24 of July Celebrations at the school, with big round watering troughs full of ice water and bottles of "pop". I can still see him guzzling a bottle of root beer down and winning the contest!

• I remember him telling us about how the dummy doll came on the big ship with our ancestors from England, and wondering (till I was at least 20) where he hid it!

• One of daddy's assignments on the high council was to oversee the building of Darby Girls camp. I loved going up their with my parents and Mark to work on the buildings and the big slide that went down the mountain.

• When daddy was put on the high council, he had to speak a lot. I remember typing his notes for him. He had such a testimony. I remember asking him once if he thought he would ever be the president of our church. He just smiled and said, "I'm sure I won't be." I thought he could be though, he gave such good talks.

• I remember his story of the protection of garments, when he got his pant leg caught in the power take-off of the tractor, literally stripping his pants off, but not touching his garments or his leg.

• How scared I was, and yet how privileged I felt when he asked me to be with him in surgery when he had to undergo his stomach surgery, as if my being there with him would somehow make things turn out alright.

I remember that I felt loved.

I love you daddy.