85 *edited*

My father-in-law turns 85 today. He and his wife are coming to our house for dinner tonight. I’m making chicken piccata with linguine, green beans with almonds, and I’m baking a cake.

I wish I knew more about my father-in-law’s life. He’s a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, taught at the college level for many, many years, and is the typical absent-minded professor (my husband, who works at the same university as a research engineer, once found his father’s car in the staff lot with the driver’s door standing wide open). He and his wife married four months before their first child was born, he was in the service during WWII, and he was an only child. He wears Velcro sneakers, rarely buttons his shirts correctly, and loves puns. For all that I DO know about him, though, there is much that I don’t.

He doesn’t talk about his family or his childhood, he doesn’t talk about his time in the military (though I don’t believe he ever saw combat - I think he was stationed as a radio operator aboard a ship in the Pacific), and we haven’t been able to figure out what it is about the holidays that turns him into a manic-depressive personality; bubbly one minute, brooding and hiding from people the next. He loves his family from a distance - he’s awkward with hugs and kisses, even with his little grandchildren (that’s him in the picture, not knowing what to do with Beanie in his lap) - but he DOES love them. He’s generous with his money (which is part of how he demonstrates love for his children), but impatient with anything he considers “beneath” him (television, modern culture, that sort of thing).

In short, my father-in-law is like a box of chocolates - we never really know what we’re going to get. He is a good man, though, and raised a good man - which stands as testament to a life well-lived.

Happy birthday, Dad, and many more.

*dinner was a HUGE hit, he loved his present of a zip-up PolarFleece jacket, and Beanie’s homemade birthday card made him tear up (though he hid it well).  It WAS a happy birthday, and I’m glad we had a part in making it happen*