Day 4 of 30 - My parents

My parents have always been my rocks.
My father was born and raised in Indianapolis, IN.  He was an avid sports fan, and played golf, baseball and basketball, and loved to bowl.  Some of my early memories involve me sitting in a both at the local bowling alley while my dad competed with his league of US Postal employees.
I got my love of sports, specifically basketball, from my dad.  I also got my love of travelling from him.  Like Dad, I've always got my next few trips planned, and I'm rarely at home when I can be on the road.
My mom was born in St. Petersburg, FL, and raised in Whiteland, IN, just outside of Indianapolis.  She was a fairly typical girl of the 40s and 50s, in that she learned early how to cook and clean for a large family, how to sew, and how to crochet, and always knew that she was to be a wife and mother.  She tried to pass that on to me.  It didn't take
My parents met in Whiteland, IN, when my mom was 15 and my dad was 17.  They were 16 and 18 when they got married in 1960.  They had 5 children (1961, 1963, 1965-46 years old today!, 1978 and 1980).  During their marriage, they lived in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Florida and Georgia.
Among most of my school friends, I was the odd one out.  I still had both my parents, TOGETHER, STILL MARRIED, in the same house with me.  Shocker!  Sure, they had their issues, their fights.  But they always worked through them, and I never questioned their love for me, or their love for each other.
Throughout the years, my dad worked as a breadman, a cookieman, a US Postal worker, and various other route work.  My mother worked in daycare, at the local elementary school, with my father one various routes, as operator/owner of her owning sewing business, and more recently, as seamstress and customer service assistant at a dry cleaning business.
I was always a daddy's girl, but as I've gotten older, I've developed a very close relationship with my mother.  I find it interesting that I feel I need my mommy more as an adult than I ever did as a child.  Maybe that's because I was such a daddy's girl.
On July 25, 2005, my father suffered a massive heart attack and passed away.  He was a month shy of his 63rd birthday, and 3.5 months short of his 45th wedding anniversary.
My mother continues to amaze me with her strength and fortitude.

back row (L-R): David, Jr., Leonard, me, Gerald

front row (L-R): Daddy, Mama, Carol