My Dad

[Mrs. Crappie Stalker]

I've attempted to do this more than once, but today I'm finally ready. Charley Coburn, the man I started calling "Dad" way back in 1980 when he married my widowed mom would have been 74 today. We lost him to kidney failure in 1995, but it truly seems like just yesterday for me. There are days when I miss him like crazy and I wish, oh how I wish, that we could have had more time together. I take comfort in knowing that he made his peace with God before he left this earth and he made certain that my Mom, Paul and I knew how much he loved us. We still have the cards and notes he wrote to us in those last weeks and cherish them. Love you Dad.

The picture says it all. He was doing what he loved. Unfortunately, we were all still calling ourselves bass fishermen back then and hadn't really gotten serious about crappie fishing. I wish he could've been there for our crappie adventures, even though I know he's there on my shoulder now.