In Memory of My Dad. Don’t read, if you don’t want to cry.

After a 90 year run, my father passed away peacefully in his sleep last night.  In memory of him, here’s a poem he wrote for my son, Preston, that pretty much encapsulates him.  I hope you enjoy it. 

FISHING STREAMS

For my Grandson, Preston

by Ralph Ely

My Grandson when you have older grown

I’ll take you to a place I’ve known

At Midnight, noontime, dusk or dawn

I want to show you where I’ve gone

To find my freedom…….and I want to be

In the boat with you and have you see

And learn from me, oh Grandson of mine

How to cast a fishing line!

For I’ve been young and too well I know

The rocky road your feet must go

But I know, too, a path that clings

To a wooded hill where the quail sings;

Where dogwood grows and oak and pine

And all I ask, oh grandson of mine,

Is to row the boat for you some day

Along the shore where the willows sway

To be with you when first you feel

A leaping bass unwind your reel!

I want you to sleep as I have slept

Beneath the heavens reach, star swept

I want the dawns first gold betide

To waken something deep inside

I want you, my boy, to learn to take

Your troubles to a shining lake

And lose them there, and so I wish

Oh, Grandson of mine that your may fish

And for your sake I ask that God

Will grant you the joys of a fishing rod!

Love – Grandpa