The below very, very Short Inspirational Story below (in italics) may or may not be true. It was sent to me by an anonymous donor. I am trying to find out who wrote it, so I can give them the proper writer’s credit that they deserve. But there a lot of people online that claim they wrote this short story. It is included here because it reminded me of several events in my own life that I had forgotten about over the years, plus, it is a great Short Story. I am always looking for good true short stories.
‘Getting late for a meeting, need to run,’ he said, as he slung his coat over the shoulder, and bounded out of the house. As he drove away, she came running down the stairs two at a time. ‘Wait, wait,’ she said, but he had already left. Her mouth crumpled like used wrapping paper. ‘He forgot to give me a goodbye kiss,’ she whispered, in a voice that trembled under the weight of her hurt. She called him, ‘You left without giving me a kiss,’ she said accusingly. ‘I am sorry sweetheart,’ he said, his voice contrite. ‘It is okay,’ she said, trying to be all grown up as she cut the call. She gulped down her breakfast morosely, wore her shoes, picked up her school bag and started to walk out of the door, her shoulders slumped. As she climbed down the steps, the car glided to a stop outside the house. He got out of the car. She ran to him, her whole face lit up like a Christmas tree. I am sorry I forgot,’ he said, as he picked her up and hugged her. She said nothing. Her jaw ached from smiling. Fifteen years later, no one would remember he was late for a meeting, but a little girl would never ever forget that her father drove all the way back home just to kiss her goodbye!–Anonymous
This part is My True Story: For decades, I owned a computer company that kept me not only busy but under a lot of stress both financially and emotionally. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my work but I always seemed to bite off more than I could chew! Add to that, the fact that I had a real challenge with delegating and my tendency to micro-manage everything. I have been a workaholic for most of my life! It is no wonder that I was overworked. I also had an understanding, supportive wife and three beautiful, smart, and loving daughters at the time. Looking back, I often let my work take precedence over my wonderful family. The worst of this was when a work emergency was happening at the same time my wife’s mother died. I count my response to her death as the worst decision I ever made. I felt at the time it was justified, but, on looking back it wasn’t.
I was under pressure with a huge client to fix his $40,000 main-frame computer which we had just sold him when my mother-in-law died. I should have been their 100% for my wife and kids. I failed them miserably! I could have (and should have) delegated the job to my best employee but I didn’t. I felt I was needed on the job. I loved my mother-in-law. I loved my wife. My daughters loved their grandmother, also. To this day, I count this as my biggest failure in life. If only I had been more sensitive and understanding. I could’ve been and I should’ve been more attentive. All I can do now is beg forgiveness and do better next time.
I also, over the years, short-changed my eldest daughter. She was in the marching band Flashettes for Franklin Central High School and I missed too many of her events due to my work. When she was in modeling school I missed some of her shows that I could have and should have attended. Having been raised in an orphanage with a brutal housemother I knew nothing about being a father.
I treated her cruelly sometimes. I spanked her too often and too hard. The way I treated her was the way I was treated in the orphanage. I blamed every shortcoming I had on emergencies at work, which were caused by my bad management skills. Looking back, those excuses were never that important. Some of them weren’t even true. I hope you haven’t made mistakes like that in your life. I did learn from them over time. My three daughters were born about 10 years apart, so by the time my youngest daughter was born I understood that family always comes first over work. For Amanda, my youngest Daughter, I attended every band event, track event, Girl Scout event, softball game and piano recital she ever went to.
The Franklin Township Band won the State Championship 4 out the 5 years she was in it. These were some of the best memories I have had in my life. The ones that missed out were the two older girls and my wonderful wife. I believe the two older girls resented Amanda for all the attention she received. I think I am (and my daughters have told me) that I was a good father, overall.
Be careful what you say to very young children because they remember everything. I remember one time when my eldest daughter was very young she wanted to try something that I thought she was way too young and too inexperienced to attempt. I told her she should give up the idea because she didn’t have enough “books in her bookcase” to make it work. It was just another way of saying she didn’t have the knowledge and experience to attempt it yet. When she turned 35 or so we talked about her younger years. She informed me that I used to think she was “retarded.” I was shocked. Not only was she pretty, did well in school, and at the time she owned her own mortgage company. She was making a very good living at the time. I asked her how she could ever believe that I didn’t think she was smart. She said, “Well, Dad, you told me that I didn’t have enough “books in my library!” She remembered what I said, but she was too young to understand that it was an analogy for not having the knowledge or experience. She understands it now, but for all those years she misunderstood the real meaning of what I was saying. Just be careful what you say to young children… it may come back to haunt you.
When each of my three daughters were very young, I would tell them stories before they went to bed. I have a vivid imagination and I loved to make up stories. I still do! They just popped out of my head like popcorn on a hot stove. I made them up as I told them, so I never really felt the need to remember them. I never told the same story twice.
One day, when I was at my eldest sister’s home, I found my middle daughter, Denise, in one of the bedrooms telling my sister’s grandkids the stories I told her when she was very young. She was amazing! I sat down to listen to stories I had forgotten. She knew them all by heart. When she grew up, she said she told the stories to her kids. Children are amazing, aren’t they?
Denise was very pretty and very smart. She was always getting in trouble in 2nd grade so we had her tested. It turned out that the test showed she was brilliant, so we enrolled her in a Montessori school. We did that so she could be more challenged. Her grades went from bad to great right away. However, when she turned thirteen she began to run with the wrong crowd, started smoking behind our backs, and mouthing off to her mother and me. She would climb out of her upstairs window to the porch roof, shimmy down the gutter pipe to run off with her boyfriend on a date when she was just 16. Her school grades went from good to bad. She was a problem we just couldn’t find a way to fix. It was driving her mother crazy. As for me, I was working all the time. Just before she graduated from high school, she did something stupid and got expelled from school for two days. I forget what she did but is was really bad–enough to get expelled for two days. At the time, I was involved in working to satisfy a huge contract with the Veterans Hospital in Indianapolis. It was an $80,000 per year contract. We had fourteen $12,000 printers in our shop to repair and they needed to be fixed “yesterday.” We were working 12 hours a day to satisfy the VA Hospital. That’s when I got the call to pick Denise up at school. On the way, I was remembering what happened when my wonderful mother-in-law died.
I stopped by my house on the way to the school to pick up something. After I picked her up, I explained to her my challenges at work and how important it was that I return as fast as humanly possible. I also told her about my not supporting the family as much as I should’ve and could’ve when her Grandma died. I never even brought up why she got kicked out of school. I simply asked her, “Would you like to go fishing with me on this beautiful afternoon?” And that is exactly what we did. We went to my favorite lake and sat on the bank, fishing. We caught several catfish and a turtle. All we talked about was her after that. She was, and still is, a “talker.” We talked, laughed, and had a really good time for 4 to 5 hours. Of my three daughters, she was always the most gregarious. I’ve always told her she would have made a great trial lawyer. That subject, in fact, came up again. I said to her, “I never understood why you can be so smart in everything else and do so poorly in school.” She responded, to my shock, “Dad, I remember everything I read and I could easily have aced my tests, but I didn’t want to look like a “nerd.” It was all about who she wanted to impress. Why didn’t I figure that out earlier? I heard Denise tell that fishing story at family gatherings several times and she told me many times how much it meant to her. I am a slow learner but I do learn! After high school, she got married, had two girls and inherited a stepson. All she ever wanted, she told me, was a family. I told her, “Be careful what you wish for!” Both her daughters turned out to be a lot like her in a lot of ways. They turned out to be very good girls.
Writing these True Stories about my life is very therapeutic because I learn so much about myself. Sometimes it is hurtful and sometimes it is therapeutic. It is never boring, though. I remember the Johnny Carson Show when Robert Blake was his guest star (the guy who played Barretta in the TV Series with the white parrot). Robert Blake said, “You can put shoulda, coulda and woulda in one hand and a dime in the other hand and you still couldn’t buy a doughnut!”
I have always wondered about things I should’ve, could’ve and would’ve done in my life. You can’t fix the past but you can certainly learn from it. I am so glad my family stayed with me long enough for me to learn from my mistakes and to improve on my many shortcomings. Always put your family first! Fixing yourself is the best apology you can offer! I am sooo Blessed!
Update Note: My wonderful daughter, Dawn, was 10 times as good of a parent as I was a father to her. Although I loved her very much, she was my first child and I was totally unprepared to be a parent when she was born. I was always a workaholic and way too demanding and sometimes even mean to Dawn as a parent. My wife, Paula, raised Dawn because I was gone all the time chasing my dreams. Thank goodness I had Paula. Dawn learned from me what NOT to do as a parent. I am the reason no child should ever be raised in an orphanage. Orphanages are institutions like prisons are. They are places of hard discipline and they have to be that way to keep order. Families are not like that and I never lived in a “real family” of love and affection. I made sooo many mistakes with Dawn. Thank goodness she was so very strong. I learned from how I treated Dawn what NOT to do when it comes to parenting. I did better at raising Denise and Amanda (because of my mistakes with Dawn) when they came along. I am a slow learner, you know! LOL When Dawn married Bill Furr she chose a winner and he turned out to be a great father to their boys and a great role model. Paula and I could NOT be more proud of Dawn and Bill and our two grandsons! Oh, we are also proud of my other two daughters and all of our grandkids!
My Three Blessings: Denise Amanda, and Dawn
Roy Lee Barrett
Click to go to the next True Story, “My Uncle and the Glass is Empty”
Roy Lee Unchained 