SPREAD THE WORD! Lets make this grow
Live Like Pop!
2 Ways to Participate: Email: Dawn@livelikepop.org or mail your card with penny/favorite memories/photo to the address below
PLEASE SEND US A PICTURE and/or story OF YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES - they will be added to this site
A POP'S LOVE
THE GOAL
Pop's Story
“Pennies for Pop “
In Memory of the Best Man I have ever Known
My hope, my goal is to receive 100 cards with pennies attached or to get 100 virtual pennies posted on the site. The more the better! Please share Pop’s story with your friends, your loved ones, like I said I would love to hear from more than 100. Please take the time to paint me the picture of your loved one. Enjoy the images surrounding this story, may it inspire you all to Live Like Pop and cherish every moment we have.
There are two ways to participate. You can email Dawn@LiveLikePop.org and send me your story and pictures by attaching them to the email. Or you can mail me a card with your story and pictures and a penny attached. If you choose to mail a story, please mail your cards with penny attached to: Live Like Pop, PO Box 382736, Birmingham, AL 35238. I look forward to reading them all and creating a beautiful scrapbook honoring all the Pops of the world. Thank you all!
Hello World! My name is Dawn and I wanted to share my story with you all. Because I truly believe that when the world is graced with such a beautiful soul as my Father, his story needs to be told. May his story touch each and every one of your lives in some way or another, may it inspire you to cherish every moment you have on earth, may it motivate you to love harder, help others selflessly often, make you laugh, cry, and feel all the feels from it.
This past year has been a year of an emotional roller coaster, and not just for me, for everyone. It has changed the way healthcare is provided, the way in which we buy our groceries, the way we communicate with our loved ones. A year of masks, a year of almost daily changing rules to follow, a year of devastating losses. Each and every one of us has been affected by Covid-19 in some form or fashion whether we realize it or not. In fact, some of the changes we have had to make during this pandemic will forever be engrained in us.
For me, it has become a year of coping, surviving, changing my perspective, realizations-all of which began with the devastating loss of my Father, My Hero, My Best Friend. I went from getting to see him every day for breakfast before work, texting with him throughout the day, talking to him on my way home from work to nothing in just four weeks’ time. I lost my father to Covid-19 in January. The most gut-wrenching, heart-breaking aspect of this was I couldn’t be there with him when he died. That didn’t sit right with me, how could the most wonderful Man in my life who gave me the world, who helped millions of people and animals his entire life, be forced to die in an ICU bed alone?
In the months that followed, I came to the realization, after several nights of sobbing out loud, countless therapy sessions on grieving and many, many sleepless nights, that I had some tough choices ahead of me. Choices I had thought about and did not want to make, but I knew the day would come where my brain would get together with my heart and combine with my intuition to become a sounding board for my Dad, whom I always called Pop. About choices- they are never really easy, are they? You see, I work in healthcare as a Family Nurse Practitioner in Urgent Care, where I see anywhere from 60-100 Covid-19 testing patients a day. Those choices-did I really want to return back to a job where I have to constantly talk, educate, and answer countless questions about the very beast of a disease that took Pop from me? Would I be strong enough to do this? What if I cried in the room while informing them they have tested positive? So many emotions, so many thoughts running through my mind about the right choice to make. To talk about it all day, then come home and turn on the TV and hear about it more on the news or on every medical sitcom to date seemed quite the challenge for me. This would be my toughest decision I have ever had to make. It would be a “sink or swim” moment for me.
Then, suddenly, out of nowhere while sitting in our den watching a beautiful rain storm, the most gorgeous red cardinal flew down onto our deck and stayed there for a while. I don’t know how you feel about signs from above, but if ever there was a sign, that moment was one. At that very moment, something inside me shifted, it was if my Pop was right there with me telling me what I needed to do. One week later, after being on leave, I decided to return to work. I realized that it was the right thing to do. Not only for myself, but for Pop. Just like Pop, I was born to help others and even though it would be difficult at first, I knew I was meant to help as many patients as I could, to educate them, and answer as many questions as I could about this disease. I wanted to be there because each and every one of my patients is someone’s Father, Mother, Husband, Son, Daughter and the more people I can help, the better. I want the world to know that we are all in this together. And that in fact if we are all in this together, than we are all never alone fighting this. We should be building each other up, not tearing each other down, not judging one another’s choices especially during these difficult times. Now, you have heard the back story, let me get to the best part-something I call “About Pop”. I’ve always been told I was a great artist my whole life, because I love to create, paint, melt crayons onto canvas and different kinds of wood which surprisingly is a tremendous stress reliever I discovered through this past year! So, if you don’t mind, let me paint you the brightest, most vivid, most beautiful picture of the world’s greatest Pop.
My Dad-where to start. That grin, that cute, devilish grin much like how my Mom described him when they first met in high school. My Mom worked in the library and every day, my Dad would go into the library, much like how I imagined one of the T-Birds from the movie “Grease”, and start talking quite loudly to get her attention. And while my Mom will tell you, it bothered her because she always had to tell him “Shush!”, it obviously worked because they were married soon after falling head over heels in love, raising all six of us [I’m baby number six!], and staying married for 61 years! My Dad, at the young age of 16, quickly picked up appliance repair from my Grandfather and started his own business, selling, repairing, and running multiple coin operated laundries across the state. Pop was a real go getter so to speak, juggling running his own business, being a Husband, Father, Son, Friend, there was nothing he couldn’t do.
And growing up, no matter how busy he was, he always made time for me. He would get home from working all day and come have tea parties outside in this wooden playhouse he built me. I remember he was so tall that when he sat in my playhouse as I prepared the tea [a combination of fruit juice, sprite, and kool aid], his head touched the roof. Still, he smiled and drank my very creative tea’s. Then he would come upstairs to my playroom and I set up a grocery store. He would push my little yellow buggy around and pick out fake groceries and let me scan them and he would pay me with my fake money. As I got older, he would quiz me on my spelling words, vocabulary, help me with my Science fair projects, volunteer to work at my school’s concession stand. He never missed a dance recital, a volleyball game. Pop was always there for me, always. Even as an Adult, if I had a rough day and couldn’t sleep, I could call him at 11:00 at night and he would talk to me, reassuring me that this too shall pass. Our Sundays were spent going to the river to see the different fish, going to different parks to play, and going shopping for every single Care Bear, Rainbow Brite, My Little Pony, and Poochie products out there. And he did it all with a smile on his face, that cute, devilish grin was always on his face. I spent summer’s traveling with him to all of his different laundries pulling the machines and as we pulled each machine, he would tell me stories about different coins and how he wanted to share the coins with me. Even the pennies he found that had been shrunk because someone had left them in the dryer. We would search for those unique, weird coins at every place we went to, it became our thing. Every year, he would take all of us to Disney World and to the Beach-and he would always get me pressed pennies which I saved and now reside on my rainbow memorial shelf I designed for him. Ahh those beautiful memories he gave me. I still remember him carrying me on his shoulders from the pier at the beach back to our Condo, I would say “Pop, too tired now carry me”, and he would scoop me up with his strong arms and place me gently on his shoulders. And Disney World, I will cherish every minute I had with him for the rest of my life. I remember him holding my hand as we looked at the Magic Kingdom’s Castle-he told me “You see that big, beautiful castle sweet girl? Well, Walt put all of his hopes and dreams into it with the intention of bringing families together so that they could make magical memories just like we do every year”. I remember looking up at him as he spoke, seeing his smile, his face glistening in the sun, he looked like superman to me.
Pop loved his family, he loved life. He raised me to believe it’s the little things in life that matter most, all of those quirky, little, imperfect moments are what will stay in your heart forever. He was right about that. He radiated love, kindness, selflessness, he just had this way about him that even if you didn’t necessarily want to be happy, you couldn’t help but to be. He fostered my love of so many things in life, especially pets. He serviced several Vet clinics and carried extra dog and cat food in the back of his truck, in case there were strays, we could feed them. Needless to say, our big hearts often got the both of us into trouble with Mom because we brought home several strays-including a turtle that we painted a small pink dot on so we would recognize him should he return to visit, and a tiny brown rabbit with a broken leg whom I dubbed “Peter” that we kept safe until his leg healed.
As you can see, I loved my Dad with all my heart. He touched the lives of so many people that you couldn’t imagine. He definitely gave more than he received and was happy to do it. He volunteered and provided free appliances to homeless shelters, abused women and children’s shelters. He did it not because he had to, but because he wanted to. It has been such a pleasure hearing from some of his customers and friends, hearing their stories of him and that huge, infectious grin on his face. Pop loved life, loved to laugh, cherished every moment he had on this earth, he not only inspired me, but he left with him a huge legacy that will carry on forever. One last “About Pop’s Grin”-my Dad, my Dad-he always had this one area in our front yard that would not grow grass no matter what fertilizer or what type of sod you put there. He tried and tried. One day while out, he discovered quite possibly the world’s ugliest piece of sod on the side of the road that he brought home. I remember telling him “you know that is dead right, it’s never going to grow”. That grin got me, so big, you would have thought you were looking at the Grinch after his heart grew three sizes, he kept that piece of sod and watered it every single day. It was truly hilarious-again, it’s the little things in life that matter most.
You may wonder why I’m sharing my story with the world-because I now know what it is like to lose a loved one to Covid-19, I now realize the impact him dying in such a horrific way has affected me and my choices, and I’d like to think that sharing this will help someone else who has experienced a loss like mine. It is my hope that we can all work together and beat this, that we can build each other up rather than tear each other down, no matter how difficult that may be at times. And to ask for your help with something I’d like to create to honor Pop. This is something I have been thinking about creating for months now but I need you all’s help to make this happen. A project I have created and named “Pennies for Pop”- What does this entail-I’d like to create a scrapbook of cards from you all-cards to honor Pop, cards filled with a small note or short stories of your favorite memories you have of a loved one you have lost, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be losing them to Covid-19. With your card, I’m asking each one of you to attach a penny to it representing and honoring Pop because of all the precious coin searches he took me on which created a quirky, little funny, happy memory that will live in my heart forever. I cannot thank you all enough for your time, your willingness to participate in my quest to honor my forever Hero, your thoughtfulness as you read my story, and your graciousness as you share your favorite memories of your loved ones with me.
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