Friday, September 20, 2019
Who was Earle Wadden?
He was Naomi’s husband, our dad, and a loving grandfather, first and foremost.
When I was a very little girl I instinctively knew there was something very special about my dad. My friends confirmed my belief and more than once I was told I was really lucky. They all knew that my dad was full of love and a healthy dose of mischief.
Dad was passionate about being a husband and a dad and he devoted himself to mom and to us.
We will never forget our trips to the circus... those fishing trips... picnics...sledding...skating...snow mobiling...cross country skiing together...and, Saturday Night Hockey Games.
Dad...Flooding the yard, in Winter, to make a rink big enough so all the kids in the neighbourhood could skate in our backyard... Hot chocolate with marshmallows for all.
All four of us have happy, childhood memories of growing up with dad.
As an adult, I came to realize that our dad was way ahead of his time. We didn’t grow up with any Gender Issues. Dad taught us that we could do just about anything we wanted to try. When I wanted to learn to play ball, he spent time teaching me how to throw and catch a baseball, as well as any of the boys in our neighbourhood. He taught me how to bait my own hook and fish for brook trout and smelt and...if I caught one... I was the one who had to “clean it” Dad taught me how to build and fix things and left me with a sense of mechanical resourcefulness that has served me well.
His love for us was unconditional and I always knew that I needed to pay attention to my mistakes but not... to “fuss over” them. He always said...”Nothing is so bad that it can’t be fixed by taking responsibility and working to correct it, Linnie”.
Telling dad the truth was far more important than whatever mishap had occurred...and believe me, I had a few dooseies. He and I were laughing, just last week, about one of the mishaps that I confessed to, when I was 12 years old. He said he and mom got quite a chuckle out of the detail that I went into while confessing.
Nowhere was our dad’s character more on display than when we golfed with him.
He was a very good golfer tagged with the nickname, “Pipeline”, because his shots were most often ...straight up the middle of the fairway. Just like his business and personal life, “He aimed to be a straight shooter”
When we hit a bad shot and landed in the rough, he told us that just gave us a chance to try to do something exceptional, to recover.
When we complained that we were having a hard time he advised us to slow down and relax because getting yourself ... “all outta gear” wouldn’t help.
Dad encouraged us to always bring our A game to whatever we did and ...win or lose, “play fair”!
He taught us to form our own opinions and to speak our mind, when necessary...to approach everything with integrity and to question things that just didn’t seem right.
And... When something was torn or broken, we could always bring it to dad because most times, he was able to fix it, or sew it. You see... he was the son of the best seamstress in Morien (Gertie Bud) and she had taught him how to lay the perfect stitch and sew a button to stay on. The badges on our Uniforms were often hand-stitched by dad.
We were so very, very, fortunate that he was our dad and that we got to spend so much time, with him, making so very many wonderful deposits in our Memory Banks.
Holy Smoke and Ashes, Dad, those childhood friends were so right... We are very lucky.
