Being an Obscure, Loyal Provider

It’s Father’s Day. I’m on the front lines now: my father has passed, as has my wife’s Dad. But their impact is not forgotten.

They were not well-known men in the wider world. Neither of them were college graduates, nor did they attain fame or notoriety. Both, ironically, were draftsmen, laboring away in relative obscurity in different parts of Connecticut for decades with companies that were neither sexy nor ground-breaking.

But what they WERE – they were both faithful, dedicated, stable providers. Mega-wealth creation was left to others more gifted or privileged – these men went about their work and their domestic lives in order to provide their children with a solid foundation from which to launch.

They didn’t shirk responsibility. They took what they had and toughed it out, staying faithful to their wives and families, working and sacrificing and saving. Their wives – our mothers – also worked when the kids were old enough, since draftsman jobs were not the highest-paying around.

They provided safety, stability, and the chance to grasp at opportunity.

All seven of their (combined) offspring graduated from college.

Three of us have, at one point or another, gone off on our own or started businesses.

All of us are homeowners, raising children who are now (in the oldest strata) moving into college and career tracks.

Many of us would like to leave a bigger mark in the world, a brighter trail across the sky. And that’s OK – I hope a lot of us do. But let it be said on many Father’s Days in the future, that underneath it all, we were loyal, faithful providers. And if our children are the ones to leave the brighter trails across the sky – what better legacy could there be??

Happy Father’s Day.