A first-person reflection describing the speaker's father—who never earned more than $15,000 a year—and the large turnout at his 2006 funeral. The speaker emphasizes that the father's impact came from how he treated people (helping, listening, encouraging), not from material possessions.
Chapters
I remember when my dad passed away in 2006, I stood at his casket for six and a half hours. It was an hour and a half wait to get through the line. My dad was a man of little means. He never made over $15,000 a year in his life. But the day we buried him, there was standing room only. They had to open up other rooms inside of the funeral home. Because my dad made an impact on the lives of people. He. He helped them, he cared for them, he heard them, he encouraged them. It wasn't about his boat. It wasn't about his house. Not a person mentioned a tangible possession through that line. All they said was, let me tell you what your dad did for me in my life. Every single person for six and a half hours.