by Jadey Bayless

Created on: March 21, 2007   Last Updated: May 19, 2007

Role model? How do you define your role model? Well, I will tell you that I have a special someone, who has instilled in me morals, values, a sense of pride - and so much more. This person I got to know and enjoy for thirty three years. Thirty three years may seem like a long time for some people, but I have to say it was all too short a time for me. This special person is my father.

My father had a rough life right from the outset. He was a hardworking farm boy, who dropped out to help the family out. He came from a family of ten children and they really didn't know what money was.

As he grew up and became a man and settled down to start a family of his own, life didn't get any easier and money certainly didn't grow on any of the trees. By the time he was a young man, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; so he had to learn real quick how to be the stay-at-home dad to five children.

The multiple sclerosis never got him down and, believe it or not, never ended up putting him in a wheelchair as it normally does to people stricken with this awful disease. One day, he found a lump - just a normal lump - under his arm. Very casually, he said, "Hey, I have a lump." Being by that time in the medical field, I asked a few questions and gave him my answer - one of course he didn't like. I think I liked mine better than the surgeons.

If cancer wasn't enough, he had to have a stroke on top of that. You would have thought this would have done for anyone, but he kept his head up and fought, fought hard. He made a good recovery, though not a full one, from the stroke but, due to the rehab he had after it, he was unable to undergo chemotherapy. Unfortunately, the cancer was growing rapidly and destroying his once larger than life body. His will was clearly shrinking, and I watched him slowly being taken from me. Even up to his last hours, he still had the will to live, but I think he knew his body could no longer cope with all the demands life made on it.

He taught me how to fight for what is right, to keep my head up through the good and the bad and to never give up. He was a strong man and I will never stop thinking about my Dad, about all the good times that we had and all the advice he gave me along the way.

I miss you every day more and more, Dad.

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