I’m really proud of my dad. It’s one of the few times I have actually told him. Usually it’s the parents telling the child how proud they are due to some success in life. Things such as graduation from high school or getting into a great college. So for me to tell my dad I’m proud of you means so much to him simply because it’s something that is rarely said daughter to father.
Today my father passed his DOT physical, which now allows him to go over the road and drive trucks like he’s wanted to do for years now and has done in the past. There was so many roadblocks preventing him from getting this before he moved out here.
Firstly, he worked for US Food Service for five years before he had to take a family medical leave of absence on account his back looked like a C from sitting so much. Several weeks of physical therapy and time expired from family leave and the job was considered abandoned. So they let him go.
After that it was all down hill for my dad. Recovering still and working at a dead end delivery job that he did for so many years while still working for the food company was awarding him next to nothing for pay, and barely enough to live on. He tried to get back to work driving trucks and getting more than just the little amount of pay from the pizza place. Don’t get me wrong, there were nights when he would bring home a few hundred dollars, only if it was busy.
Once I moved out of dad’s house, I should have kept up on him and made sure things were paid for. Unfortunately, I was expecting and really could do much. When I did ask him if things were paid up, he told me yes they were. When I moved to Bloomington after my divorce, it only got worse from there. I received a phone call from my brother informing me that my father had been toss in prison. When I discovered the reason why I was really let down.
Dad called me not so long after he got out and he explained to me what was going on. He promised me that things would get better and that things would go up from there. However, things didn’t go the way he wanted. He moved in with his mother and brother, having no where else to go. It was painful to listen to the crap that went on there. They tried to control his money, and tell him how to live. Dad is very independent and that was working to well for him.
He was looking for work but only coming up with dead end minimum wage jobs. Fast food and grocery stores. Nothing spectacular. This isn’t to say that Dad wasn’t looking for better. It was just nothing was available where he was that he could get to easily. See when Dad got out of jail, they suspended his license for a year and he had to rely on his feet to get him around. Then when he got his license back, he didn’t have a car and relied on his mother and brother for use of their vehicles when it convenienced them.
Finally, Dad came out to visit me the end of July, shortly after Tim left. While he was out here, he began to look for work. I had no issues for it. I’m pleased that he was planning for the future. I knew how much he didn’t like living with his mother and brother, and I knew how much better he could do out here.
That job came about a week later. They processed the paperwork, played phone tag and pushed for my dad to get into this trucking company. It wasn’t the only one he applied for. He did reapply for US Foods and was told he didn’t meet the criteria of what they wanted. Even though he had five years experience.
A road block came early last week with my father’s blood pressure. it was upwards of 180/101 which is really really bad. Stage 2 hypertension. They had him come back the next morning and sure enough it was still very high. So they set him up with a doctor in a nearby town and he went there. The doctor there helped him get the meds he would need, as well as a new inhaler. As it turned out a big reason my father’s blood pressure was so high was due to the fact he was using Primatine Mist.
Thankfully everything went well. I’s were dotted and T’s were cross. Hopefully by the start of next week, dad will have a truck under his but and I can go back to worrying about him normally rather than excessively.
The last time Dad was out on the road doing over the road trucking, he had a list of rules. When he pulled in for his evening meal, he was required to call us at home. That rule still applies. This time he’ll have a cell phone so that if we need to get a hold of him we can. But he’ll also be packing a phone card so he doesn’t waste his minutes calling us.
Dad getting this job has made me extremely proud. I’m ecstatically happy that he is finally getting his life together and back to where he was before all these dead ends hit him. I hated seeing my Dad down in the dumps and would go out of my way to help him anyway I could. I also seen the toll it took on him when it came to raising us kids as well as not being able to help us whenever us kids needed it. It made him feel less than himself and took a slice out of his pride each time.
Him getting this job will give him so much more freedom. And for that I am most thankful.
Keep it real and rockin’
❤
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