I got to thinking what my late husband, Doc, would have written about  Fathers Day if he were still here.                                

I know he would have had memories of his own father, Dr. Joe O’Shea.  I have all the letters he wrote to his Mom and Dad when he was going to boarding school as a youngster.  I’m sure his parents thought they  were doing what was best for their young, adopted son they ucalled Merlin.  However, for a young boy, to be at a school where his language, English, was not the first language almost all the boys at school.  Their language was Ukrainian.  Merlin was so homesick all the time and I’m sure he was left out of a lot of activities by the other boys. He loved to get home to Norquay and hang out with his Dad.    

Dr Joe, as he was affectionately called, was the softie.  He was a quiet man and often must have been busy writing poetry (there are many notebooks of poetry here).  He was probably one of the last doctors to make house calls.  Doc told me of the many times he would go with his Dad in all kinds of weather to attend to the sick. Money was always a problem for those needing to pay the Doctor and many times the closest thing to being paid was receiving a chicken instead of money.

Dr. Joe loved to have a smooth running car although he was not mechanically inclined.  He must have been happy when Doc was old enough to maintain anything that had a motor!  Doc just had that ability that as my kid’s could truly say, “My Daddy can fix anything”.