Loomis

Lean and Mean at 17 years old.

Any story about my family has to start with my father, Loomis. Born in 1939, he grew up hard. Something I didn’t fully understand until late in his life. He joined the Marines at age 17.

He married my mother, Frances, his high school sweetheart at the age of 19 and soon after began working at Gilman Paper Company in St. Marys, Ga. I was born the next year, 1960. My sister Dara, was born in 1962. Then in 1980, my baby sister Kristen was born.

My father passed away in 2013 at the age of 72 years old.

He was my hero. I tell older people who get the TV show reference, that he was part Sheriff Andy Taylor from the old Andy Griffith Show. Affable, wise and steady as a rock. You could count on Loomis. Like Sheriff Taylor, he didn’t need to carry a gun to make his presence known.

He was also just as much part James Garner of the 1970’s Rockford Files TV series. A man’s man, good looking, and charismatic. He was fearless. He could check a man with a snarl and a look if the situation called for it. Marines aren’t afraid of mixing it up.

He loved his family and he loved the Lord. He was the best. I have his old Scofield King James Bible, with pages dog eared, versed underlined and his notes in the margins.

He built and left a legacy that stood for something. That legacy remains standing today, even though he is no longer physically by our side.

I see him today in both my sisters. I see him in my nephew, in the way he walks. I see him in both of my sons. When they are old men they will remember what it felt growing up and being with Pa.

I miss that man and I always will.