My Father,The Hero

Hero ( noun)- Just look under this word and I can guarantee you that his name will be there.

My father Jim, isn’t like your ordinary American dad. He’s far from it. My dad always been a hard worker ever since I can remember at the age of four. He’s someone who’s never given up on well…anything.

He was born into a small sized family living in a small town in Connecticut. Him and my uncle had discovered the love of food, as he decided at fifteen to take a career into the food industry by helping his mother with cakes. That love affair of food grew, turning it into getting into the famous culinary college, The Culinary Institute Of America in Hyde Park, NY. His art is from food, working up his way up the culinary totem pole with famous chef’s from around the world. He then, met my mother at a up and coming hotel. Starting off, he was a dishwasher, making his way to the airline catering service. Making delectable dishes for Hollywood’s Who-Who at an airline function in the eighties. Which included cooking for infamous mobster John Gotti and his posse which resulted in a few hours of a poker game at the end of a long tiring shift.

This includes myself, being born severely premature, battling deadly diseases and infections. Not knowing if I would survive or not.I had my infancy on death’s door a few times. Going on a constant a roller coaster in the hospital. He made sure every chance he got, was being at the hospital at our family’s side making sure I was surviving. It was 50/50 with my life. At that time in the eighties, I was worth over a million dollars when at the time, my parents didn’t have much.

After working in the airline catering industry for twenty five years, he decided to make a change in his career after 9/11. He’s worked in the produce industry for fifteen plus years. Who knew a man from a small town in Connecticut could now be a Vice President of Operations for the popular produce company, Taylor Farms Tennessee Inc. This hard-working influential man has a drive and work ethic that I’ve never seen in someone. In his past hobbies, he’s run thirteen marathon’s ( running the NYC marathon three times), an avid rock climber ( including climbing Devil’s Tower ), master bee keeper and currently beating prostate cancer.

He has never left his family out in the cold for anything. Making sure we always had a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs and a warm bed to turn to at night and of course having a dog or two completing our family. He never once missed a ballet recital, school play, birthday or graduation.Making it a requirement to him that me, my older sister and mom always came first in his life despite his fast paced, high pressure, stress inducing career. He’s proven to me to never give up on anything in life, whether it was scholastic, job related or just anything in life in general.

The man himself is constantly hilarious, making some inappropriate wise crack comment that probably would have the late actor Robin Williams laughing out loud. My dad has this motivational drive that’s like internal wildfire. A wildfire that no one can extinguish, he keeps on going until a certain job is done. My dad makes sure to have fun, whether it was surprising me and my sister to a movie, impromptu go-kart races or having daddy-daughter date nights.

For the bottom of my heart, I’m so blessed to have him as my father.