Matheny, Ralph 5

 I think Dad was closer to his sister Clarice than he was with any of his other siblings.  This is how I mostly remember them.  

Side note:  When Dad and Clarice were in the Blackduck nursing home at the same time, Dad spent much of his time with his sister.  Dad still had his memory, but Clarice had completely lost hers.  She would ask the same questions over and over again, immediately forgetting the answers.  I once asked Dad how he could stand those conversations.  His reply:  "That's easy.  She's my sister and I love her."

Sometimes the nursing home aids would line up patients in wheelchairs for a session of upper body exercises.  Sitting in their chairs next to each other, Dad and Clarice dutifully did their exercises.  Until Dad would reach out and lightly hit his sister on the arm.  Both would keep on exercising until Clarice would lightly smack Dad upside the head.  This play would continue until an aide could be heard yelling, "You Matheny kids!  Behave yourselves!"

And they would behave until Dad popped her on the arm and she smacked upside the head!!  Again.

Dad loved spending time with his grands and great grands.  The first photo shows him with Duane, Jill and David.  In the second, he is with great grands Nicki, Zach and Chris.

The following photo has been entitled within the family as "A Man and His Tomato."  Tongue in cheek, of course.  Dad loved to garden and if he couldn't do that, he would grow things on his balcony.  This tomato plant sat on Dad's balcony all summer and produced several tomatoes.  In the fall it was still growing and producing, so Dad brought it indoors.  The silly thing kept growing until eventually it touched the ceiling.  Dad got a big kick out of raising an 8 foot tall tomato plant!

This page wouldn't be complete without the next picture.  Dad enjoyed giving Mother flowers.  Most times he picked lilacs or peonies from our yard or gladiolas from the garden.  Once in a while he would give Mother a single yellow rose.  He claimed that the single yellow flower represented love.  We always thought he told Mother that definition just so he wouldn't have to spend the money on a dozen roses!  

We were at our favorite lake in the summer.  There were no flowers growing wild nearby.  So Dad's solution to the problem of finding flowers for Mom was to pick water lily flowers.  And here he is with his little gift for Mom.

This last photo was taken outside of the apartment house in Blackduck where he lived for many years.  And this is how I remember him, along with the memory of always being greeted with a hug when I saw him and the memory of the words, "I sure love you, Sis," whenever we ended a phone call.

I really miss my Dad.