I Knew a Guy Once...(a tale)

who raised a bunch of kids. He wasn't too educated but he was a pretty good guy. He worked hard and never got into any trouble. He had some girls and a couple of boys and they were so full of energy that you never knew what was going to happen next.
He believed in God but never went to church. The kids sometimes went to church with neighbor kids so that meant something.
All in all, things weren't too bad for the first several years. The kids went to school and this guy worked pretty steadily.

One day he noticed he wasn't as young as he once was. The kids began growing up and some of them did all right and others didn't do too well.Sometimes he got along well with them and at other times he didn't. Sometimes they would leave in a huff and promise they'd never come back again.Some of them finished school and went on to have businesses or vocations of their own. Others of them got into trouble and wound up in jail or worse. If the good things that happened to them was his doing, the bad things were, too.

Time went by and some things changed while other things stayed the same. This guy was pretty much the same as he always had been. Only thing was, he was getting older all the time and after a while his health began to be not so good.
He never complained much but he could tell things weren't just right anymore.

He finally retired and began living a quiet life, doing the things he couldn't when he worked. It was relaxing to be retired and he settled back to take it easy.

Then one day he woke up a little earlier than usual and didn't feel very well. Not being a complainer, he didn't pay much attention at first. After a while, though, he had to see a doctor and, after a bunch of examinations, he got the news and it wasn't good.

To make a long story short,it seems he didn't have much longer to live. When it started, it got worse in a hurry. Pretty soon he couldn't even get out of bed.
The kids came around to see him when they could but he didn't tell them he was dying. He always enjoyed seeing them but it never seemed to be enough.

Then one day he died. Just before he died, he went to see a lawyer and left his last request. At the funeral, all the kids were there. His attorney was there, too.

After the service, everyone met at his house. The attorney was there, too. In a little while, the attorney said the man had requested every child should write on a piece of paper in two sentences or less what they really thought about their Dad. They were to be blunt and honest. It wouldn't matter what they wrote because he had nothing of any value to leave to anyone and he loved them equally.They agreed and each one of them took a sheet of note book paper and a pencil and began to write.

After his children finished writing, they folded their sheets of paper and handed them to the attorney. The attorney opened each sheet, one at a time, and read them to himself. As he read, his eyes began to glisten and soon tears ran down his cheeks. The kids watched, wondering of the reaction of their Dads' attorney to their notes.

"Please tell us why you are crying," one child said.

The attorney said, "I can't believe it."
Then he turned the sheets face up on top of the table.

Each sheet said, in a little different way, the same thing. It was, "I love my Dad. There were things I wondered about that happened in my life with my Dad but I now know he always did the best he could for me at the time ."
Later...