Valuable lessons from a great father

It was 20 years ago this Father's Day that I wrote to your newspaper about my dad, Karl E. Reuter. He had died from lung cancer only three months before at the too-early age of 70. In my letter, I mentioned how he'd taught me many life values, one of which was to have courage.

When we sat on the side of his hospital bed on the eve of open-heart surgery and I told him I admired his bravery, he said that he'd never backed down from a fight and he wasn't about to start. Later on, he showed the same courage when he fought the lung cancer but, sadly, lost.

I mentioned how much I'd always respected him and talked about the time he caught me smoking my first cigarette. A life-long smoker, he motioned me home but when I arrived, he was nowhere in sight. Instead, my mother just said "Your dad is very disappointed in you". That day I swore to both of them that I'd never smoke again and I never have.

My dad has been gone for 20 years now but I doubt there isn't a day that goes by that some problem makes me wonder "what would dad do".

I've spent my life trying to be the type of person I know he wanted me to be. Always in the back of my mind is the thought that I want to make him proud that I have his first name as my middle name. I still don't want to disappoint him.

So for everything he did for me while he was alive and all the guidance he set for me for after he was gone, please allow me to say once again... Thanks, Dad.

Thanks very, very much.

Richard Karl Reuter

Naperville