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A Very Special Post from AMY FERRIS

You will soon get to know Amy Ferris if you don’t know her yet.  I am her Goddess Sister, and she is Mine!  She posted this on Facebook today and it is a reminder that life has detours, obstacles, and shit along the way but we can survive if we are compassionate, caring, and loving humans!

The Words of Amy Ferris – Please, bear with me.

Today is the anniversary of my dad’s death; 20 years today; November 2.

This is one of my very favorite pieces that I wrote about us, and in honor of him today, I share it again.

A ritual.

Every Saturday we took the Long Island Railroad from Bellmore to Manhattan. New York City. The train ride was about forty-eight minutes, station-to-station. At the candy store in Bellmore, he got a newspaper and a coffee with a little milk; and I would get chocolate milk. On the train, we would find seats – two together, side by side – and we would sip and he would read, and I would stare out the window watching the world swish by.

He had been arrested.

A bribery case – the United States vs… my Dad.

He didn’t expect to be caught. He didn’t expect to be arrested. We didn’t expect life to change. She didn’t expect to pawn all her jewelry. I didn’t expect to be bullied and harassed, and to have imaginary friends. We had never known that kind of fear and sad before, and now they had moved in with us, constant companions, tagging along where ever we went.

You don’t expect that kinda shit when you’re 8 years old.

He needed a job; to feed us, to pay the bills, the mortgage, the car, the clothes.

He got a job working at Melvin’s Frame Shop in the West 30’s. Or maybe it was the West 40’s. We would walk from Penn Station, the LIRR, to the shop. His friend, Murray, got him the job. Melvin was Murray’s cousin. Melvin made frames for Museums, and Art Gallery’s and was pretty well known in that world. Elaborate frames. Fancy frames – gold, and silver, huge frames. My dad was hired to sweep the floors, and clean the place. A janitor. He would sweep, and clean, and label frames, and organize things, and I would sit on the wooden table, my little-girl skinny legs dangling, and I’d watch – mesmerized – as my dad swept the wooden shavings from under the tables with a huge broom and dustpan. And Melvin would berate him, in an accent sprinkled with angry. “Sweep here. HERE. This. This. Here. THIS. This dust, and this sand, and these wood chips… and the mess… sweep, god-damn-it, sweep, you lazy man, can’t you see where you’re sweeping, Goddamnit?” And my dad would shrink right before me – right before my eyes. He would shrink, and disappear, and I was so scared he would disappear forever. He was a tall man – six foot one – but Melvin could make him disappear. Melvin had the same tattoos that Phyllis and Henry had. The same exact tattoos. I called them cartoons. I didn’t know what tattoos were. Numbers – like a telephone number – on their forearm. Melvin had the same tattoo as them. I knew about those numbers. I knew that Phyllis and Henry had lost both sets of parents. All four. They had burned to death in an oven. I knew that story. I had heard that story over family get-togethers, dinners. Incinerated, was the word used. I watched, witnessed, as Melvin spewed at my father. Goddamn you, you lazy man. And I would sit on the wooden worktable, my little skinny legs dangling, and watch my dad lose whatever faith he was clinging to while I was clinging to him. I wasn’t sure why he brought me with him on Saturday’s. Maybe he wanted me to know that he loved me. Maybe he was lonely. Maybe because it was a Saturday, and he never needed to work on Saturday’s, and that was our day. But our days were different before the arrest. They were filled with hope and possibility; museums and plays, and theater, and movies and Aunt Jemina pancakes. Maybe he needed to know that no matter what, no matter fucking what, I would love him. We would leave the Frame Shop right on the dot: Five O’clock, and we would walk down Broadway to Penn Station. Stopping at the automat. He would get a hot steaming cup of coffee, and I would get a milkshake. Chocolate. And we would sit at the counter, and I would watch my dad stare into his coffee, a million miles away. And I would make believe that I was a Princess from the Island of Long, and we were having a day out and no one – no one – could find us. I liked that game. And then, we would stand up, and almost on cue, we would both exhale, and then he would leave a tip, a few coins for the waitress behind the counter, and we would walk to the train station, a few blocks away, and climb down the stairs into the station, and find the track number, and go to the platform, and wait for our train, and the train would swish into the station, loud and steamy, and when the conductor said: all aboard – because back then they did – we stepped in, and found our seats, and I grabbed my dad’s hand and didn’t let go.

I didn’t let go.

And I could feel every bit of his sad and his unhappy and his burden and his disappointment and his humility and his anger and his disgrace and his embarrassment and his shame and his worry and his fear and his doubt entwined in my fingers. Our hands. I could feel it. And when I finally caught his eye – when he finally looked down at me – his little girl, his princess – my eyes were saying, you’re my hero, Daddy, you’re my hero. And I think maybe for a few seconds he believed me, and I think that maybe that gave him just a little more courage. A little more hope. At least enough courage and hope to get us home.

After months – day in, day out, day in – my dad was acquitted on a technicality. And our life came back, piece by broken chipped cracked piece. He stopped working at the frame shop and my mother stopped pawning her jewelry and I stopped having imaginary friends and we never, ever talked about that time.

It was taboo.

That huge, massive cluster of shame was hidden deep, tucked away, because that’s what you did back then – when something bad, awful, horrible happened – and it was swept under the wooden table along with all the wooden chips and all the dust and all the shavings; into corners and crevices and cracks and under rugs – hidden and buried deep.

DAD’s Day – FATHER’s DAY – POP’s DAY – Call it whatever you want DAY with LOVE

In response to my brother Joel’s Blog, “Dads.”

My dad was my hero

He was not perfect by a long shot, but he was my Pops!

At 5 ft 11 inches he appeared to be a huge figure to me.

He provided me with hugs and kisses, and these were not meant for just special occasions, they were daily devotions of love for family.

My pops always had an answer or tried, and although it may not have been the one I desired, Words by Harmon were spoken or written.

 

When my dad wasn’t smiling, I assumed it was my fault, and yet today I look back and wonder why I allowed those thoughts to cross my mind.  Assuming always resulted in making an ASS out of ME.  (Some times that even included a potch on the touchy, OUCH!)

My dad was not wealthy in the sense of dollars, but his compassion for life, learning, and sharing made him as RICH as a king.

 

 

He was a dreamer, and he attempted to reach for the stars, failure was not in his vocabulary, every step was part of the master plan.

 

 

 

 

 

To this day I can still hear my father davening, saying the morning prayers, and often as a young child, I would watch him from afar with his Tallit (prayer shawl), Kippah (head covering), and Tefillin: Phylacteries.

Often this followed another daily ritual for my Pops, as he called it, the three S’s.  At the end of this, he could hear my father bellow, “Good Morning Handsome!”  (My father once told me if you can’t say something positive about yourself how can you expect others too.)

 

Today, Father’s Day 2019 it is the 15th year that my father is not here on this green earth (that we are destroying) to celebrate.  I cannot imagine what he must be thinking looking down from the heavens above with the love of his life, my momma, DVasha at his side.

Today I will not be giving my dad cigarettes as we did in the 1950s and 60s, or a pipe or tobacco as he preferred in the 70s and 80s.  He no longer needs a necktie or a new iMac, and even in the day, he preferred just having his Chick-A Dees, his children grandchildren, and great grandkids, spend time with him.

 

 

 

I miss watching my dad fall asleep in his comfy living room recliner and waking up just in time to watch golf on TV.

I miss knowing that he was just a phone call away with the wisdom I chose to listen to or not!

I miss spending Father’s Day with him or any other day.

But, I cherish my memories that no one can ever take away, this is the gift he gave me, and today I will remember and send my loving thoughts to the heavens above.

 

To all the GREAT DADS, my husband Rich included, continue to create the love and kindness both you and your children need to be the BEST versions of themselves.