Donald “Butch” Herman Freeman 1947-2010

A few nights ago, my husband was on his genealogy kick and decided to do a search for my father. For years, we were never able to turn anything up on Google. This night was different.

He found an obituary for my dad.

Donald Freeman
A memorial service for Donald Herman “Butch” Freeman, 62, will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, March 20, 2010, at the Anderson Clayton Funeral Home in Kemp.
Freeman was born July 1, 1947, in Center and died March 5, 2010, in Tyler. He fought a short but courageous battle with brain cancer.
Freeman was a faithful husband, loving father and a much-loved brother.
He will be greatly missed by his and his wife’s closest fishing buddies Ann and Joe Miles and a host of other friends and loved ones.
He served from 1968-72 in the United States Marine Corps.
He retired from Presbyterian Hospital of Kaufman March 2, 2007.
He and his wife Sarah, purchased the bait shop at Purtis Creek State Park but were forced to close when he became ill.
He loved his four-legged buddies “He-Boy” and “Hooter.” They were always by his side.
Survivors include his wife Sarah Freeman, Alba; daughters Jennifer Loggins*, Whittier, Calif.; Donna Lynn Freeman, Gun Barrel City; and Janna Freeman, Crandall; sons James Peavler, Alba; Jack Barr, Alba; and Charles Barr, Gun Barrel City; 14 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren with another expected in April; sisters Jimmie Hagle and husband Jim, Tundra; Maxine DeRossett, Canton; and Tommie Mooneyhan and husband Mike, Tundra.
In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to the Hospice of East Texas, 4111 University Blvd., Tyler, TX 75701.

I didn’t know my father well. My mother and father split up when I was a small child.

There are so many things I don’t know about my dad. How did he get the nickname Butch for instance?

I knew he liked fishing, but what else did he like to do? I don’t know anyone on that side of the family. I know I have step brothers. I have half sisters that I may have met when I was a child, but I know nothing about. I suppose I have aunts and uncles and cousins as well, but I couldn’t tell you how many or anything about them. I have a huge hole in my family history that I’d really like to fill in.

He had 3 grandchildren he never had a chance to meet. I wonder if any of them were counted in the obit where it said he had 14 grandchildren. They knew about my oldest, and I’m pretty sure about my son. I’m fairly certain no one knew about my youngest. So maybe he has 15 grandchildren, or 17 depending on whether or not my kids were counted. That’s a lot of cousins my kids don’t know anything about.

I thought about my dad often. I tried sending letters and for a while, I would hear back. His wife Sarah would do the writing. That was ok with me. I was just happy to hear from them. After a while, my letters went unanswered. I didn’t have a phone number for them, so I did the best I could. I don’t know why I just stopped hearing from them. Any time someone wanted to contact me, they’d write or call my grandma’s house. When he passed, no one contacted me. I don’t know if it was because they didn’t know how, or they didn’t think to do so. I really hope it was the former.

The last time I spent time with my dad was in 1994. He came for my (first) wedding. I was really nervous about it because I hadn’t seen him in a very very long time. It turns out my anxiety was unwarranted. It was more comfortable than I could have imagined. We got along great. I just wish I had taken more time talking with him about HIM.

I didn’t know my dad. But now I’ll never have the chance to get to know him better.

I’m really hoping someone in my Texas family sees this and contacts me. We may not know one another, but I’d like to get to know y’all.

Daddy, you’ll be missed. Even though we had lost touch for the last 8 years, I thought of you often. I wish my kids could have met their granddaddy. I wish you could have met the man I’m spending the rest of my life with. Jason’s a good man and you’d approve. I know he would have liked to have met you.

I love you dad. May you rest in peace.

____

*I’m not sure why they named me Jennifer Loggins. I’ve never been a Loggins in my life. I understand they had no way of knowing I’m Tucker now, but why not just call me Freeman?

A well-known blogger just posted a link to a story she wrote when she first started blogging. She told a story about going to a restaurant in LA when she was a student at a well known college in LA. A famous actor there and she approached him for an autograph. He asked for her address and said he’d send her a “fan kit” instead. There were several people that commented on the post about how rude he was, presumably for not giving her an autograph.

There’s more to the story, but this is what I want to talk about. Was is rude of him to not give her an autograph? He was at a restaurant, trying to enjoy a meal out. In the blogger’s defense, she didn’t push him and beg for an autograph.

I don’t think he was being rude. I’ve only seen 1 “celebrity” in the “wild.” I use quotes because while he’s technically a celebrity, he’s also kind of icky. He’s well-known simply for his cheesy romance novel covers and also getting hit in the face by a goose while on a roller coaster. For the most part, I don’t go where celebs hang out. The exception to that is Disneyland. A ton of celebrities go there, but I haven’t seen one yet. Not even when they’re at the park the same day I’m there.

I can tell you that if my favorite actor was there, there’s no way I’d ever approach for an autograph. If they’re someplace trying to relax, enjoy a meal, spend the day with family or whatever, then why would I think it’s ok to intrude and ask for their signature. Wouldn’t I be the rude one for intruding on their time?

What do you think? Do you think it’s perfectly ok to interrupt someone’s dinner to ask for an autograph?

If you totally ok with approaching them, but they brush you off, do you think they’re being rude?

I’m not faulting the blogger for approaching and requesting. I understand a lot of people do this. I’m just tripping on the comments saying he’s rude for offering a fan kit instead of an autograph right then and there. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that he was pretty decent to offer it. He could have simply pulled a James Cameron and gone off on the poor young thing.

So what do you all think about the subject?

By now, it’s very likely you’ve heard that I broke my ankle in 2 places on Monday.

I was heading down the stairs with an empty laundry basket. I was completely distracted by all the kids playing around outside and I was listening to my friend and my neighbor’s conversation. Now, I’m a stair counter. It doesn’t matter if I’ll never go up or down that flight of stairs ever again, I’m counting them. It’s just what I do. Except on Monday. I was not paying attention, thought I was at the bottom and stepped out rather than down. Turns out I still had 2-3 more stairs before I got to the bottom.

An ankle break might not seem like much of a big deal, but let me assure you it is. It’s my right ankle so driving is completely out. I’m on crutches for who knows how long. It’s impossible to carry anything when using crutches. I can’t make my morning coffee and carry it to my desk. I’ve had to change they way I do that. I have a bag that I can carry and my stainless steel travel mugs are completely leak proof. So I make my coffee in that, pop it in the bag and swing my way to my desk. Simple things like getting to the restroom and getting dressed and sleeping are now a big challenge for me.

I’ve been pretty weepy the past few days and I’ve been trying to figure out what my problem is exactly. It’s a broken ankle, not the end of the world. I’ll be able to walk again. I’ll be able to do all the things I could do on Monday before I fell. What EXACTLY was my problem?

I’ve pin pointed a few issues, but the biggest is the feeling that I lost my job. I’m a stay at home mom and my job is to keep the house running. I simply can’t do that right now. I can’t cook, make my daughter’s bowl of cereal the way I normally do, do laundry… I can go on and on, but the heart of the matter is I can’t do my job for a while. And that makes me feel bad.

I’ll be back at the orthopedist’s office on Tuesday. Should there be anything to report, I’ll be back then.

She had fun opening the box and looking at the goodies her grandma made for her.

And just for fun, I want to include something that totally brightened my day.

A few minutes later that little rainbow turned into this

Refraction via a reflector on Christian’s bike wheel. Love it.

You’re looking at a dress I made for Jess last year. I had to replace the strap on it because the one on there was cutting into her neck. But really this is just about the cute cherries. Pardon the wrinkles.

And this is the dress that I made for Jess a few weeks ago and was having difficulty with because of the straps. I finally got it all worked out and here she is wearing it.

I told her to show off the dress and she stuck out her belly. Silly girl. If you look closely at the first picture, you’ll see the black and white polka dot fabric. That’s what I used to make straps for both dresses. Jess now has 2 very cute summer dresses that she can wear without the strap cutting into her neck or falling off her shoulders.

The first time we passed the turtle tank, there was a turtle just chillin on the back of another one.

After walking the next aisle, Jess wanted to see them again. This time around, another turtle had joined the party.

We finished looking at all of the fish and she wanted to take one more pass by the turtles on our way out. Lo and behold, another turtle decided to join the party.

Not 5 seconds after snapping this picture, the two turtles on the right slid off and plopped into the water. Jess and I had a good laugh at that and watched as they started climbing back up onto the log and each other.

It was a fun little field trip and I’m glad I finally stopped by there so she could see the fish and the turtles.

This little parrot was just chillin in the road next to the parked car.

I wasn’t sure it could even fly, but after I snapped this picture, I tried to get a little closer and it flew off.