Frank Wiggins' Birthday

When I was very young I was never close to Dad. Until I was four, he traveled for Sears and Mom told me I would cry as a baby when he came near me because I didn't know him. He became a Sears manager when I was four and we still didn't see him much because he worked so hard. I was actually in high school before I knew that everyone didn't work on Saturdays. But when I turned 16, he seemed to change somehow. He took me and my three best friends to Shreveport for a championship basketball game and also to New Orleans to see a special opening of The Sound of Music. They still bring it up whenever we're all together because no one else's parents did that sort of thing. Then when I was in my 20's I read the book, Passages, by Gail Sheehy. She wrote about the different stages we go through in life and one chapter was about men after they turn 50. She said that is the time they begin to face their own mortality (at least this is how I remember it) and turn from their work to their families. Keep in mind, this was the 60's. And as I read that, I realized that Dad was 50 when I was 16. From that point forward, he was my hero and I will love and miss him until the day I die. Happy birthday, Dad!