Bowers' Boys and Me

'Happy Father's Day' to my wonderful Daddy! 

I love you for so many reasons... and in so many ways... 

I love you for your unselfish ways (the way you worked so long and so hard for so many days ~).  I love you for your tender heart that showed me it's okay to have true emotions.  I love you for your 'principally speaking mind'...  that showed me one does the minimalist of tasks to the best of their ability because that is just what one does.  I love you for your strong work ethic that showed me 'if something is worth doing it is worth doing right'.  I love you for teaching me to balance a checkbook at age 15, then taking me down to Family Savings Credit Union and opening a joint account with me. 

(Thanks for the overdraft protection, too!)

I love you for teaching me and allowing me to drive to my grandmother's at age 14.  I also love that you didn't kill me when I crossed a major 4 lane highway, at age 14, as I left Etowah Middle School in your truck (alone) to go home for my cheerleading jacket!  I love you for letting me keep the injured rabbit I saved from the dog knowing it was too injured to survive (many lessons are learned through death). 
I love you for taking the time to correct my English papers in 7th grade only to have Mrs. Nabors butcher them before they were returned back to me (I learned not to let you proof-read my papers again).  I love you for financially rewarding my efforts in school (a practice I keep with your grandsons).  I also love you for letting me stay home from school one day, unexcused no less, because I simply wanted to spend time with you. 
I love you for teaching me to change my oil and change a flat tire.  I love you for helping me build a birdhouse and a step stool.  I love you for not only taking time with us as a family on vacations, but actually playing with us as well.  I love you for letting me feel like I was capable of doing anything that Joel and Jeremy could do... Girl power was born many years ago! 
I love you for taking me 4.5 hours out-of-state as a 17 year old freshman, never having driven out of Alabama before, and clocking each mile on each highway so I could safely return home alone.  This was the first of many moves for us...  I also love that you helped me load up my belongings to bring them home in a pick-up from Auburn, only to have the rain start pouring on us in Syllacauga.  Very thankful for that Chevron station! 
I love you for opening your home up to all of our friends throughout our entire lives... our home was their home.  I love you for taking me, Joel and Jeremy to the Auburn vs. Nebraska game.  It was my first Auburn game and your unwillingness to pay too high of a price had you and I sitting on a bench outside of Jordan Hare listening to the game on radio!  However, you offered an apology and we took a trip back down, alone... just you and I, for the Auburn/Georgia Tech game...
I love you for smoking a stogie with me in Ybor City even though you had stopped smoking a few years earlier.  I love you for loving my mother.  I love you for making her feel safe and secure in y'alls relationship (having both come from broken homes, your words of  'I know what it is like and I will do all I know to do to make it work... I'll never leave you, nor my children' were words that moved mountains to her.) 
I love you for teaching me to ski, slalom, and knee board.  I love you for teaching me to ride motorcycles and quietly letting my expensive wreck on one in Panama City slip away with nothing but scars to show.  I love you for your continued support of all of my dreams. 
I love you for calling 'family meetings' and having round-table discussions about what was troubling each of us.  We learned to talk it out.  I love you for being a leader and leading our family in the most important of ways... your faith was tender when we came along, but your commitment unwaivering.
When we came around some 40 years ago... you didn't have a manual that told you how to be the perfect father.  Nevertheless, you did the very best with what you had and with what you knew how.  We never went without food.  We never went without shelter.  And more often than not, you provided the extras for us.  I now know you are not perfect, and I don't hold you to a standard that you cannot live up to.  I love you for you and I wouldn't want you any other way...
Simply put...
I LOVE YOU! 
More than you will ever know...

Happy Father's Day to the man who had my heart first, then graciously gave it away...