Stalwart men, solidly established and at peace in their own estates–<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Their wealth remains in their families, their heritage with their descendants;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Sirach 44: 1, 6, 11<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to pay homage to my Dad on Father\u2019s Day.\u00a0 Thankfully he is still in the Land of the Living, and I spoke to him yesterday.\u00a0\u00a0 But I\u2019d like to share more about him, to give praise to this Godly man right now.<\/p>\n Sr. Renee Branigan once taught me that when you write or make a speech you \u201cTell people what you are going to say, say it, and then tell them what you said.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So with that advice, here are a few things you should know about Dad. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He is a simple and wise man.\u00a0 That simple wisdom of Dad\u2019s is something I treasure.<\/p>\n Do it right, enjoy yourself while you are at it,\u00a0\u00a0 have coffee with friends, share a meal and a joke or two, enjoy the beauty around you, \u00a0give to your parish \u2013 both your time and efforts and your check; give to your community, think twice before you speak, do what it takes to develop patience. <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My Dad is, and always has been an amazing man.\u00a0\u00a0 He grew up on the banks of the Powder River in\u00a0 Eastern Montana.\u00a0\u00a0 His family was very poor, and his Father Lloyd Murdy was often away for months at a time working on other ranches.\u00a0 Dad learned to be self sufficient at an early age, working at paper routes and then in a clothing store.<\/p>\n When he was in high school, his parents were going to make him drop out to go to work.\u00a0 Dad insisted on staying in school, and took his Junior and Senior years by correspondence; working by day and studying into the evenings.\u00a0 In the end he graduated from Custer County High School in 1948.\u00a0 It was not long after that that he entered the Marine Corps.<\/p>\n My Mom and Dad met accompanying another couple on a date. They were both seeing other people but there was obviously a strong attraction between them.\u00a0\u00a0 He went to Korea and she continued in nursing school and they wrote back and forth. He served with the\u00a0 1st<\/sup> Medical Battalion and was an ambulance\/truck driver.\u00a0\u00a0 His unit was at the Ichon landing. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After the war they were married.\u00a0\u00a0 Dad went to work for the seismograph crew, and Mother was a nurse so they traveled with his work.<\/p>\n When they came to Chinook, Montana, Bob Inman was the first person they met (Bob and Dad have both told me this J)\u00a0 They worked in the area, and the seismograph crew was going to be moving on, but didn\u2019t know if they\u2019d have a job for Dad in the new location as he was low man on the totem pole.\u00a0 \u00a0Mother was working\u00a0 for Doc Leeds,\u00a0 so Dad took a position as a grease monkey at\u00a0 Taylor Motors.\u00a0\u00a0 But Mom and Dr. Leeds had other ideas, and they convinced Dad to go back to school for\u00a0 lab\/x-ray training.<\/p>\n They moved to Great Falls for that.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A great deal of the radiology training was with Dr. Pectkevich (whose son John Misha Petkevich became an Olympic skater) Dr. Petkevich had trouble with his eyes, so would play ping pong with Dad in the evenings while quizzing him.\u00a0\u00a0 Dad taught me to play ping pong years later. We would play at St. Gabriel\u2019s or the back of the old Eagles.\u00a0 It was a fun time with him. Dad was always an insightful and compassionate man.\u00a0 In the winters, he taught himself Spanish by listening to records.\u00a0 Chinook is sugarbeet country, and there were many crews of migrant workers to tend to them.\u00a0\u00a0 They would come into the clinic, and not be able to communicate.\u00a0\u00a0 Dad took it upon himself to learn the Spanish.\u00a0\u00a0 In 1970, in Chinook, MT,\u00a0 THAT was a big deal.\u00a0 It was a different world, and the concept of being bilingual or providing for all was not even being spoken of.<\/p>\n Dad was always a hard worker.\u00a0 Full time at the clinic, then doing household projects, or formica and handy man projects for other people.\u00a0 He sold Fuller Brush products for a number of years; basically doing whatever it took to feed and clothe a large family.\u00a0\u00a0 When we were younger, Dad was not always the most patient man.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He learned to tie flies as an evening activity in an effort to teach himself patience.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His flies are still talked about in Chinook.\u00a0 He sold them at the local hardware store.\u00a0 \u00a0A few years back someone came up to us at lunch and said, \u201cPat, you still owe me a bunch of wooly worms!\u201d<\/p>\n Going fishing with Dad was a wonderful time.\u00a0 Often it was loading up the car after work on a weeknight and heading out to Ross\u2019s Reservoir for a bit, or to the FFF fish for fun club.\u00a0\u00a0 He and the guys did cowcreek each year too.\u00a0 When I called Dad yesterday to wish him a happy Father\u2019s Day,\u00a0 he and his grandson Hunter were out in the street.\u00a0 He was teaching Hunter to cast a fly rod.\u00a0 They were catching some mighty fine rocks!<\/p>\n When I was a very small child, Ron Popeil\u2019s \u201cPocket Fisherman\u201d was the hot item of the year.\u00a0 I had my heart set on one and got it for Christmas.\u00a0\u00a0 When we went out fishing that spring,\u00a0 Dad kept laughing at my \u201cMickey Mouse Outfit\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 However, I caught more fish that day then I ever had so couldn\u2019t rub it in too much.<\/p>\n When it came to fishing and working in the yard, I loved my time with my Dad just as much as the boys did.\u00a0\u00a0 When I go home to this day, we often get a one day license and go out.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dad taught us an important lesson very early on.\u00a0\u00a0 Going fishing and catching fish \u00a0were two different things, and it really didn\u2019t matter if you did both!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Going fishing was getting away, and relaxing and being quiet, and appreciating nature, and being attentive to the environment around you.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how you knew where to stand on the creek bank so your body didn\u2019t cast a shadow, or how to watch the water for that fish nibbling on a bug so you could cast out towards it.\u00a0\u00a0 You breathed in, you saw and you existed.<\/p>\n While with the scouts, Dad began to canoe the Missouri River.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He and Ray Reid took down tons of Scout groups.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Their first trip was lead by another individual, and kids got spread out way too far up and down the river.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dad and Ray decided never again.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They got these red and green felt hats.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dad and the red hat were lead.\u00a0 You stopped, never going past the lead canoe,\u00a0 and Ray was green for go. You always stayed ahead of the canoe.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dad still has that felt hat.\u00a0\u00a0 In the early 70\u2019s brother Jim got a hold of it and sewed a groovy band of trim on it though.\u00a0\u00a0 Somehow even that is fitting.<\/p>\n I remember our first family trip with cousins and many other relatives. It was a wonderful time, even though we had some horrid weather to contend with.\u00a0 Through the years Dad took well over a hundred river trips, scouts, 4 H kids, family reunions,\u00a0 and many other private parties.<\/p>\n He told me the story of taking the church altar boys down the river.\u00a0\u00a0 In the white rocks, he pulled all the canoes together out in the calm waters on a beautiful sunny day.\u00a0 He told those kids, \u201cSometimes in your life you will be tested, and you may sit and church and wonder what it is all about\u2026.. but if you EVER wonder if there is a God, just look around you now.\u00a0\u00a0 Remember this beauty. Remember this moment. Remember this day!\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n The thing about Dad was,\u00a0\u00a0 when you do something you do it right, whether that be the way you clean the hedge or thatch the lawn, or the way you load a canoe.\u00a0\u00a0 A half assed approach just wouldn\u2019t do.\u00a0\u00a0 He is always methodical and thoughtful in the way he works.\u00a0\u00a0 While I learned his work ethic, and to stay with a project however long it takes to complete it, I\u2019m a bit more like my mother in a scattered, creative approach to my life.<\/p>\n But just yesterday, I used the footstool dad made me when I was little.\u00a0 It has been repainted numerous times, from the pink with a decal, to yellow, to the gold that matches my kitchen now.\u00a0 It was well built and has stood the test of time.<\/p>\n In a small town clinic, the hours can be pretty sporadic.\u00a0 Some weeks he was putting in 60 hours, and some weeks there were not as many hours.\u00a0 It becomes hard to live like that.\u00a0\u00a0 At the age of 57, Dad made a huge change, and went to work for Blaine County as the head of the maintenance department.<\/p>\n It was probably the best decision he ever made.\u00a0\u00a0 He worked full time until he was 75, and still works one day a week there.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In that time he has mentored many young men in another way, teaching them work ethics, and communication skills.\u00a0 He also had a wonderful with the women in the offices and doing their special projects, and finally being able to go have coffee with the guys.\u00a0 He felt blessed to be able to work and still does.<\/p>\n Sadly, Mother\u2019s dance card ran out at the age of sixty.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Her death was a painful thing for all of us, but devastating for my Dad.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I remember calling him once and asking\u00a0 \u201cHow are you doing?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He said, in his silly humorous way of deflecting pain, (which I\u2019ve inherited) \u201cOh I\u2019m making all sorts of new lady friends. There is Mrs. Campbell, and Mrs. Dinty Moore, and Mrs. Paul\u2019s\u2026\u201d \u00a0 Fortunately though, he did make a new friend.<\/p>\n He and Donna Neibauer found each other.\u00a0 She\u2019d been widowed since we were in high school, as Neil passed away at a Father-Son basketball game.\u00a0\u00a0 I played guitar for his funeral and the Highliners sang \u201cPeace is Flowing Like a River\u201d and other songs.\u00a0\u00a0 Jody and Joel were classmates,\u00a0 Tom and I,\u00a0 and Jamie was a year younger.\u00a0 We\u2019d know their family all our life through church and school and life.<\/p>\n That simple wisdom of Dad\u2019s is something I treasure.<\/p>\n Do it right, enjoy yourself while you are at it,\u00a0\u00a0 have coffee with friends, share a meal and a joke or two, enjoy the beauty around you,\u00a0<\/strong>give to your parish \u2013 both your time and efforts and your check; give to your community, think twice before you speak, do what it takes to develop patience.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n![\"Picture](\"http:\/\/jillmaria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Picture-077.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>This picture of Pat the Riverat says a lot about him as a man, and as a father.<\/p>\n<\/a>On one of his first trips home from basic training on leave, this green young kid from the styx got taken advantage of by someone near the bus station who was doing a scam.\u00a0\u00a0 He arrived in Montana hungry and \u00a0with just a few cents in his pocket.\u00a0 But he learned a lesson from that experience and no one\u2019s fool after that.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0My Folks both knew a lot of sorrow in their lives.\u00a0\u00a0 Their first child Timothy James, lived but a very short time, undergoing surgery and many treatments before hand.\u00a0 Dad happened to do the bloodwork that showed his Father Lloyd Murdy had cancer, and the tests showing Mom\u2019s Mother, Walburga Maria Schmidt had Leukemia.\u00a0\u00a0 By the time they were 32, they\u2019d each lost a parent and a child, and had four children under the age of seven.\u00a0\u00a0 That is a lot for anyone to handle.\u00a0 But those are some of the things that began to temper his quiet, deep faith.<\/p>\n<\/a>Similarly, Dad taught many young men similar lessons as a scout leader.\u00a0\u00a0 This quiet man who absolutely hated to be in front of a\u00a0 crowd learned to get up and do it for the sake of his kids and many others.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He had many a story to tell about the tenderfoots who didn\u2019t prepare their meals and backpacks right out at Cow Creek, or the kid who ended up with a blister on his hike for not heeding advice.\u00a0 While Dad has a very playful time, when it came to learning and teaching he was all business and commanded a great deal of respect.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Perhaps my favorite image of my Mother and Father was the two of them dancing.\u00a0\u00a0 They were lighter than air when they waltzed, and when they did the polka they were suddenly twenty years younger.\u00a0 I remember as a teenager when they started going \u2018out\u2019 again; and I was waiting up for them.\u00a0 Very strange.\u00a0\u00a0 But they were very happy then.<\/p>\n<\/a>How blessed those two have had twenty years together.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t say it wasn\u2019t difficult in the beginning, because my heart was still grieving Mother\u2019s death.\u00a0 He wrote me a letter once that said something like this:\u00a0 \u201cJill-babe, you know the heart is an amazing thing.\u00a0\u00a0 You think you love someone with all your heart, and that there is not room for anything or anyone else.\u00a0 And then you find out that it expands.\u201d\u00a0 His heart had expanded with the capacity to love again. \u00a0\u00a0Donna has always done a wonderful job of trying to make us feel welcome and family, and I\u2019m grateful that she and Dad have each other. \u00a0\u00a0Together, we have all walked through a number of moments of joy and pain which have melded us as a family.<\/p>\n