How'd I get to be so lucky?

I heard this phrase everyday growing up, Dad would sometimes say it multiple times. We’re having chicken parm for dinner?!?! How’d I get to be so lucky??? You got an A on your English paper?!?! You get the picture…then we hit a rough patch and everyone felt so bad for us. Almost daily you hear of bad things happening to good people. Someone lost their job, had a car accident, was diagnosed with cancer, filed for divorce, even experienced a death of a close one. And when you get the pray for me email or receive the “did you hear” phone call you feel awful for them, you really do. You tell them you’re in my thoughts and prayers. God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. My personal favorite: when one door closes another one opens…but it can be hell in the hallways. We’ve heard them all. In our way my family experienced our “bad” thing happening to “good” people. On May 29th 2007 my Father was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for mail fraud. Yes that’s correct for the next 4 years and 3 months my Dad would be in a federal prison camp while there are rapists, drug dealers, people who abuse their spouse and children, and even murders that had been sentenced to prison for less time. Everyone said what a sad story you should write a book about it. Which if one day my Dad decides to do, I say good for him. But I couldn’t stand the thought of this being his defining moment. This one “bad” thing that happens being what my Fathers amazing life is about. Being convicted of mail fraud, serving time in prison, being a felon is not what my Dad is or not who my Dad is. It is a bump in the road. He made a wrong decision, as we all do. But in his case he has to pay very dearly for his. My Dad has touched literally hundreds of people in so many different ways. He was a devoted Son who called his mother everyday on his way home from work just to say hello until the day she died. He has an amazing bond with each of his siblings who have so much love and respect for him. He and my mother have the kind of marriage movies are made about, they got married on Valentine’s Day and he’s the one who picked the date! At home she is the disciplinarian but he commanded respect from all of us for not only him but her also. He is the Dad that woke up at 3:30 so he could get everything done at work and be at whatever sport is in season’s practice at 5:30. He was my brothers baseball coach from the time they were 4 playing t-ball until then went to high school. He coached every season of church basketball and went to every football game they played in. He went to all of my sisters competitions and loved playing show time at the Foleys when they were little. He is not just our father he is our friend, when you were having a bad day he would come in your room to talk about it. He is the most inspirational and uplifting person you will ever meet. He can literally turn your attitude around in a matter of minutes. This is because you know the things he is saying to you are principals he lives by not just kind words spoken. He said our prayers every night. Being the good Catholics that we are we said the Our Father, Hail Mary and then he would add: And please take Mimi and Papa into heaven and please help baby Patrick, please help the poor and less fortunate, Father we know we are so blessed and have so much to be thankful for, Amen. He had us at church every Sunday. When I graduated college and moved back to Memphis he wanted us to do something together so we taught my youngest brothers Sunday school class. At work he was not just a sales manager he was a friend and mentor. He inspired people to give their best because they knew that’s what they were getting from him. He is the friend that you could call when you needed anything; advice, sporting event tickets, or just someone to listen. Not to be cliché but I know that there is a reason for everything, and knowing my Dad many good things will come from this hard time. Being the type that can’t waste one moment of time, he began putting his life lessons down on paper for us. In a meeting the other day someone asked how dad was doing and Sean, my brother, said he’s as busy as ever getting us our life lessons. This man mentioned that his kids could probably use those life lessons as well. So here they are because while we are lucky enough to know this man personally not everyone has someone like him in their life. How'd I get to be so lucky?