Monday, March 10, 2008

Daddy Sang to Me

In college, I awakened to a knock on my bedroom door at 7:15 one morning. My roommate was holding the phone, wearing a scowl and saying, "Your dad is on the phone."

"Oh YEA! He's probably calling to wish me Happy Birthday!" Suddenly, the early morning call was OK with her. I picked up the phone, and my daddy sang me Happy Birthday. It has been a tradition for my daddy to try to be the first person to wish me Happy Birthday every year on my birthday. I love it.

Well, somewhere in the ball park of two weeks after that birthday call, my roommate again knocked on the door just after 7 am with another scowl on her face. "It's your dad again, and it's not your birthday." I said OK, and I was truly puzzled. I picked up the phone, and my dad lovingly told me that Granny, my mom's mother, had died. I cried a little bit, thanked my dad, told him I loved him, and walked back out into the living room to hang up the phone. My roommate was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal, and I told her that my Granny had died during the night. Again, she wasn't sorry for the early morning phone call.

This morning, at 9:00, which would have been 7 for my dad, I got a phone call. And again. Daddy sang to me.

I love you Daddy!

8 comments:

Jill Skouson said...

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Our Corner said...

Happy Birthday Ellie. I love that you and your father share such a great tradition. :) I hope you have a great birthday!!!

Anderson's said...

Happy Birthday L, I remember other songs your dad would sing while driving up places for school. I remember some of the boys commenting on the lovely sagebrush song he sang on the way to Moab for a drama thing. Fun time!

Melissa said...

Happy bday!

And keep us posted on the teaching thing. I thought about doing that here in TX, but I realized that all the standardized test bs would just suck the soul out of me. sigh....

Robert said...

Well, on the standarized test, the beauty of only teaching two years is that you can avoid teaching for those tests and see what happens. I bet her students would do better by not teaching to the tests.

Happy birthday, Ellie!

Audre said...

happy birthday ellie

le35 said...

Thanks to all who wished me Happy B-day.

As to the standardized tests, I'll let you know. And I will keep you posted about teaching.

Julie Pippert said...

Happy birthday!!!

And that is such a sweet tradition. :)