People closest to my Father-in-law lovingly refer to him as "The Beard". His Father before him, later in life, had a long white beard. Years ago now, he himself began his beard journey, and has never looked back. Many have balked at him over the years saying his beard is unwieldy. People have jokingly offered my Mother-in-law large sums of money to cut it off while he sleeps. He takes the jokes in stride, often using the crude term about "the horse ya ride in on"...Year after year, the beard remains.
My Father-in-law wants you to believe he's a tough nut to crack from the "old school", but he can't be farther from that. My Father-in-law definitely is from the "old school" ways of doing things, but at his center, he is so very generous. Generous with his time, his resources, his knowledge and his dependability. He always tries to be serious, but when you get him chuckling or laughing, his blue eyes sparkle and he shows you his ear to ear smile.
He's taught me alot about many things. Between my Dad and him, I feel really lucky to have 2 guys who have given me so many things.
"The Beard" got me past alot of unease about trying unusual foods, tells me that "it's part of life's adventures" to try the weird foods. I am happy to say, I have great memories from this past 20 years. A few include: Eating fresh frog legs (that were acquired only hours before being fried). We have explored miles of the Myakka River, here in Florida. He was the one responsible for my Husband and I meeting Johhny, who is one of the characters that inspired me to begin my soap journey. (Johhny has his own story, Find it on the front page of our Website). My father-in-law has been one to lead me to not being scared of the unknown, he's shown me in my situations that the best way to get into it, is to jump into it with both feet. He has shown me to believe that if you observe and also get your hands dirty at the same time, you'll always learn something new.
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