Frankly, its a little to soon to be doing this again but I feel blessed to stand among Harvey, Bill, and Larry paying tribute to a man who truly helped mold me into the woman, wife and mother I am today.
Truman Terry was a man of many names to a family of this size. Terry, Truman, BABE!, TTE, Dad, Pop, Pops, Grand dawg, Grandpa and Pappy. Everyone had their own name for him but everyone one loved the impact he had on our lives.
For me he was dad as I got him longer than I got Colin and I’s dad, Chuck.
You will see many of us in a splash of color today instead of just traditional black. Dad always liked a touch of color! There were yellow polyester pants with a red shirt in the 90’s for one of he and my mom’s early dates. His golf outfits never missed a beat. We could always find him in an airport on family trips by the outfits he had on. The last few years in Florida allowed him to turn up the colors full blast as that part of the US loves bright colors.
Dad had a million saying that we spent time reflecting on in the days after he passed. Affectionately, referred to as Terry-isms or Pappy-isms.
A few we joked about were:
That’s dead solid perfect!
Or
Don’t weaken!
(He liked this one when his grand kids were his driver!)
He liked to say to my oldest,
Madison today your mission should you choose to except is…and then go into detail something he needed her help with.
Where are you?
Where are you going
and how are you getting there?
This set of three was one he would ask us when helping us make life decisions.
An Essex never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
And of course the one the whole family can recite.
Where do you find sympathy??
If you do not know the answer to this question, it will be held until we get to the country club!!
I remember him saying to me on a few occassions…I’ve lived X amount of days and of those I remember a small amount of those days…
He called them flash bulb memories, I believe.
For me some of my favorite memories are on the patio in Abilene. We often solved all the worlds problems while having a glass(ok, it was glasses) of wine and destroying a container of cashews, pistachios or mixed nuts.
He was never afraid to encourage us to seize a moment but would spent hours analyzing if we were making a smart decision.
He loved time spent with family and often blamed his kids or grand kids for “wrecking him” when really he was leading the charge on having a good time.
As much as he loved to be with family, he loved to travel. He traveled for a career that ran strong for 44 years plus a couple years of consulting when he realized his golf game wasnt getting better.
So many memories were made with my mom as they visited a lot of different countries. He figured out some years into the traveling for fun that he needed to stay somewhere long enough to forget the traveling there so he could get back on the plane to travel home! I think he always preferred being the pilot over being the passenger!
After they moved to Florida in 2019, dad’s desire to travel became even less. He would say to mom what’s wrong with 25011 Pennyroyal Dr?
I’m so glad they made it home before dad passed away.
A month and half ago
as I drove home after being here for Stephanie’s funeral. I came around a bend in the road after driving up the mountain pass in Colorado
we go through to get home.
I saw one lone Elk. A sign I always take as my dad, Chuck checking in.
A phrase came to mind that night.
I get today.
I went home and wrote it on my bathroom mirror as my daily reminder not to take each day for granted.
Dad would have wanted that for all of us, to continue to live life to the most, make the memories, get together, bbq the food, drink the wine and make the toasts.
His request when he passed away was to have a celebration of his life
and for us to tell the stories and remember all the incredible memories.
Today, we will honor that wish.
He will be terribly missed.
I Call it Life 