Jinny Ann, thanks for the idea of writing a letter to your deceased father. I'm going to write one here too.

Dear Dad,

You were so wonderful in so many ways. You were a Navy pilot, and saved hundreds of lives during WWII, by flying them back from the Pacific.

You were a very handsome man, but were lost in how to be a good husband and father.

My brother, mother and I all paid a price. I understand you were the youngest of seven children, and your mother was a working mother way before it was the norm. I know you got sent off to school, b/c your parents were too busy running a famous restaurant.

I know your father was not a good role model for being a good husband. I know your sisters were treated as second-class citizens.

So when I came home with either all A's or almost all A's on my report cards, you never talked about my going to college like my brother, who was at Harvard at the time.

I had to lose my beloved brother and hero to a sudden death, before you realized you had sold me short, or not done right by me.

At 32 I started back to college. At 38 I had earned both a BBA and MBA. I had finally achieved my goal of being just like my brother.

I had a wonderful 17-year career, which was cut short by yet another form of discrimination -- ageism (spelling ?). You weren't here anymore, b/c God had taken you home to be with him about 10 years before this happened.

I have lived at or near the poverty line for the last 3 - 5 years.

My life has been very painful.

While I trust God, and He has been faithful through it all, it just seems my life could have been so much easier, and I might be comfortable now, instead of being on the verge of bankrupcy, if you had only smiled at me and told me how proud you were of me for my hard-earned A's in high school. If you had only said, "Let's find my brilliant daughter a wonderful college."