This fathers day was a bit of a reminder and wake up call for us Winters girls.

When sitting down to our scrumpcious dinner of cheese hamburgers, my sister asked my dad, "What do you remember about Grandpa Bill?"

After a few moments to ponder, dad started by telling us that Grandpa was a man who liked projects, fast cars, and what he did for work (I can honestly say I can't remember what he did). Dad also said that he remembered Grandpa being sick a lot, he even remembered the last time he saw the ambulance take his dad away, walking home from school.

And although he could tell us these memories, you couldn't help but note the saddness in his eyes when he said that he couldn't tell us what kind of personality he had.

We then turned the question around to us, what memories do we remember about our dad. The saddness was even more apparent because we had few of them. Our father has always worked so hard and diligently to give us 6 girls the life he could give us. He has always wanted us to be happy, what he forgot was that we also need the memories of the time we spent with him. Yes we had some memories, but we just couldn't remember a lot.

So I made a promise to myself. I am not going to let that be me in 20+ years. I want to be able to hear my kids pour out their memories and be so happy that I got to spend so much time with them. I do not want to ever see my husband get a sad look in his eye because his kids cannot remember anything with him. I want a husband who will do as best he can to provide, but can still come home and spend his time with my children.

Grandma Bill and Grandma Marj's gravestone