Lloyd Carlyle Pack - Fathers Day 2024

 Hi All.  Happy Father's Day to each of you wonderful fathers!  

I'm thinking of my own goodly dad today.  I know I write about him a lot but he was a beacon to me. He was decent, smart, steady, and good-hearted. 

Before movies had ratings they advertised the risque' ones as "adult."  One evening he and my mother were outside a theater, checking out a movie poster when he said, "This one's too adult for me."  He quit the Kiwanis Club because the men were coarse in their language and humor; joined Rotary instead.

An excellent teacher, my cousins or the neighbor kids often came over so he could help them with their math or chemistry or physics HW.  

When he wanted us to gather, he whistled the first two bars of "Do What is Right."  He started the habit when he was on his West German Mission, a call to fellow missionaries.  (The whistle turned out to be important in that area of Europe. He came home in 1938, and by 1939, the Nazi's and impending war forced the evacuation of his mission. When communications for the mission broke down, one Elder managed to locate and help evacuate a bunch of missionaries by riding a train route, using the whistle at crowded train stations to gather them, etc.).

My dad liked funny jokes. "Dad jokes," really.

He loved nature, camping and fishing. At home he liked working in the yard.  He was always a worker--laid out and bricked in our whole patio.

He wasn't phony. He taught me the word, "affectation," describing a pretentious real estate marketing move. He didn't like sneaky subtlety, such as when the Jack Benny TV Comedy Hour embedded cigarette commercials. 

When the first issues of Dialogue Magazine came out with it's intellectual look at doctrines and practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he looked it over--someone had sent it to him, being an educated member. When asked what he thought, he spoke of it distantly, almost amused. He didn't see the need. Not critical or judgmental, but for him it wasn't engaging. The Church was true, whether someone wanted to examine it like that or not.

He loved my mom and his children and grandchildren, but respected our space, our choices.  He and my mom didn't gossip or talk about people behind their backs, including family members. They didn't mock. They didn't criticize.

When I visited him at his bedside while he was dying of cancer I asked, "Is this a trial of your faith?"  He paused to consider and shook his head. "No," he said matter-of-factly.  He did say, at another time, that he kept seeing the faces of the prophets of the Restoration. 

His faith was steady and unwavering.  He never talked of personal visions or even impressions.  He just believed, rock-solid. The Church had a little booklet at the time, "The Joseph Smith Story," and when a revised edition came out I was unraveled.  What?!  A different story?!  He was only concerned because I was agitated. He explained the simple facts--one printing didn't claim to be the whole story, the only story.

After he served as bishop of the Van Nuys Ward, I asked if he ever had any special spiritual experiences. Again, matter-of-factly, he said "I sometimes found myself giving people advice, saying things to them that I wouldn't have said."

In talking about the Church at large he made observations.  When my feelings were hurt  (indirectly) by a church leader, Dad said to me, "The trouble is, it's just men who are trying to do the Lord's work."

Another time, "Some people try to treat the Church like a cafeteria, picking and choosing what they want."  The Church is true, all of it.

I don't mean to say Dad was perfect, but his faults were minor in the big scheme of things.  (He gloated if he won a game or an argument. Sometimes he didn't "read the room," consider others' feelings. And an item On Sale could sway his decision making.)  

He was a good man and I'm grateful he was my father.

Hope you've each had a good day with memories of your own.

Love, Mom