My Dad died when I was 20. I didn't get very many years with him. Dad was 45 when I was born, I was the eighth of nine children. During the last eight years of his life he wasn't well. He had emphysema and had a horrible time breathing. I would set and listen to him to hear if he was going to get his next breath. He would choke and cough and it was so scary.
There were a couple of good things that came from being with Dad during those years. I had my Dad at home all the time. In previous years, he was traveling for work and would be gone for days at a time. It also made me never touch a cigarette.
I will devote another post to my Dad's genealogy and life story, this one is just a getting started and a post to just tell everyone how much I loved my Dad. He was very special to me.
My sister was gifted with a wonderful surprise one day out of the blue. A friend of hers brought her a picture. We had no pictures of my Dad's family or my Dad until he was older. We have since collected a few from family members. Our family had fires that destroyed all the pictures a couple of times during the years that we were growing up.
Now getting back to the surprise picture. My sister's friend told her he had come into possession of it a year or more before he brought it to her. There was a old theater in Brookville, Indiana that had been torn down for years. Someone had put away all the things that were taken from the theater when it was demolished. I'm not sure how he came to be there the day they were going through the items. When the picture was brought out someone read the back of it and it said "Young Charlie Plummer". Apparently my father had worked at the theater back around 1920. He cleaned up after the movies and made a little money. At the time he was working there someone had taken his picture and posted it on a bulletin board. It had hung there for years and when the theater was torn down it was boxed up and put away. When my sister's friend heard them read the name Charlie Plummer he knew it was my sister's Dad. He told them he knew the family and would it be all right if he gave it to them. So he took that day and forgot about it for awhile. When he came across it again he took it to my sister. My Dad was around 10 years old in the picture. He is dirty and his pants are tied up, but I love the picture. I believe it is typical of children of the era in a small farming community.
I had a enlargement made and now have it framed and it is a treasure to me. In the future I hope to get a picture of the Old Brookville Theatre to add to my collection.
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