Fifteen years ago today, my father, Robert Alan Lee Nelson, died of the results of, yet, another stroke. It had very little to do with what he ate, or drank; it was in his biology, in his genetics. His biological father, Albert Alan Lee, died of a massive heart attack when he, AAL, was 45 years old, leaving my dad, and my Gramma Manda to fend for themselves.
Not awfully long after his passing, (AAL), Gramma Manda married Earnest Nelson, the grandpa I remember. Very few people know that he was a buyer for John Deere and Company, and traveled the world, mostly in Europe, buying products for the company, under the direction of Mr. Hewitt, the owner of the company. When he was abroad, he bought us presents that, unfortunately, we, I think, no longer have. There were many things, mostly from Germany, and mainly clothes for little children, because that is what we were then, children. My father spoke of him often, sometimes relaying the expeditions he had, and the people that he met, but mostly how proud he was to have been associated with this man- his step father.
My father was a minister to the Methodist church in Green River, Illinois, for almost 40 years, and I know that they remember him fondly, as I do!
No one is perfect, not even my parents. They did the best they could with what they had, and with all of us. We made our own ways, all 4 of us, and are the best of what we became. I have only love for my dad, with little, or no, feelings of malice, or regret, towards him. He was what he was, or what he became after the strokes. I have only love in my heart for the memories I have of the wonderful times we had together. I know he is at peace, and this is, as I have said, only a small dedication to the man that helped make me the woman that I am.