My surprise from Shelby

I received a huge surprise tonight! Shelby won a first place award for an essay that she wrote about Andy. Not only did she win a prize from her school, she won first place among all 6th grade students in the school district! I don't know how she kept the secret, but she did not tell me until after they announced her name at the awards assembly.

Here is her essay:

My Daddy
By Shelby Waller
Kenneth Cooper Middle School
Mary Lillard, Teacher


My daddy was a very strong man. He had many trials in his young life. He almost drowned in a well at age two. His closest sibling was eight years older than him. His dad died when my daddy was only thirteen. He was then the man of the house, and had to work on his parents' farm in little Friendship, Oklahoma. He didn't finish high school. He quit school in the eleventh grade to go fight for his country. He was a supply truck driver for the army in the Vietnam War. My dad finished school many years later.

He got married very young. He had three daughters, three sons, and many stepchildren from his marriages. They were Frances the oldest, Andrea, Andy, me and then my youngest brother John Henry.

Before my mom and dad were married a terrible thing happened. He was at a new job as a truck driver when a fork lift driver dropped a car on him. He survived, but came out of the accident a paraplegic. He was rushed to the hospital and given large amounts of blood. He and his wife became divorced because of all of the stress of the accident.

My daddy and mom were married on August 14, 1987. I was born in 1990, then soon after they had my brother John Henry. In 1994 Dad started to have medical problems. He almost died when I was five years old. He started to get better, but he could not go back to work. He was completely well then for three more years. Then he got really sick and went to the hospital. The doctors figured out that when he had the blood transfusions he had gotten hepatitis C. When they figured it out it was too late for them to do anything for him. He was in the hospital on my birthday in 2001 and I can remember that he gave me his jello because that was all he had.

My daddy passed away on February 25, 2002. My mom always called him her hero, and that is what it says on his headstone. I miss him every second and when I'm really sad I think of what he had to go through and it gives me the strength to move on.

One day at a time.