Today I am grateful for my dad. I have too many reasons to make a thorough list, so I just wanted to share a recent story that illustrates who he is.

My dad is the mayor of his town. I went to a city council meeting to represent him on a property thing he is doing. I’m a realtor, and since he’s the mayor he wanted someone else to be there due to his conflict of interest. At the beginning of the agenda, the city recognized a couple of employees for their outstanding work.

Someone got up and read a letter to all of us from a man who had moved to town as his wife was sick and passing. He talked about how comforting it was in his time of grief to work with the two city employees who manage the cemetery. The letter described the city employee’s services in glowing terms, and stated how comforting it was to have these great professionals help him lay his beloved wife to rest.  It was a long letter, and by the time it was read I had tears flowing down my face. I don’t even know that guy, or the two employees, but I was moved.

I looked up and my dad was crying. The mayor! Crying openly in a city council meeting.

Then the city honored a couple of teens from one of the local youth homes as well, and Dad’s voice cracked when he congratulated them, too. My dad’s love and compassion for his fellow humans is profound. He has so much love for other people that it spills, wet, out of his face on a regular basis. It spilled into his children, too, and many of us are crybabies just like him. I wouldn’t change that.

So while I celebrate my dad for many reasons, today I choose to celebrate his compassion. Thanks for creating a safe space for me, and for all the people you help in your church and community, Dad. You’re a keeper.