If you hadn't held down a job, we would've been screwed.
If you hadn't worked, we would've had no shelter or food.
You worked hard for years to keep a roof over our heads.
You became ill in 2011 and twenty months later, you were dead.
About three years after you retired, you died at the age of sixty-five.
Even though you had months of chemotherapy, you did not survive.
When I learned that you had Leukemia, I started to pray.
If you were still alive, I'd wish you a happy Father's Day.

[Dedicated to Charles F. Johnson (1947-2013) who died on July 13, 2013]