Life With Ferris: Daddy's Presence

  • Tuesday, December 1, 2015
  • Ferris Robinson
Daddy and all of us
Daddy and all of us

Last month marked the second full year my father has been gone.  

I found the following quote on Facebook this summer, and felt like my father was sending me a private message.  A PM in Facebook speak, if you will. 

“Death is nothing at all.  It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room… I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged… Call me by the old familiar name… Let my name be ever the household word that it always was… Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?  I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.  All is well.” 

Not only is this account of death comforting to me, but I happen to believe it’s true, that my father is not so far away from me.  Over the past two years, we’ve all had ‘sightings’ of him.  When my brother turned 50 and was enjoying a special birthday dinner, he noticed the china immediately.  Maybe not the name, but the dark red scalloped edges and detailed pattern were familiar.  Discontinued for decades, it was Daddy’s mother china, and we used it for all the special occasions, like birthdays.  Of course, Daddy would want to be at his son’s milestone celebration.  

My father’s “old familiar name” was Coon.  Coon Kelly.  And never have I seen more raccoons than after he died.  Videos of them cleaning the house pop up on Facebook, and they toodle across the road in groups.  If I don’t see them myself, I hear about them.  “There were five little raccoons peeping over the top of my house,” my hairdresser Gina Johnson told me, imitating their antics.  

When my sister moved into the new house they built in North Chattanooga, she woke up to lots of raccoon footprints etched permanently in the barely-dry concrete.  Of course, Daddy would want to see her new house. 

The other day, in Belk’s bedding department, I was overwhelmed by my sense of déjà vu.  The last time I was in the bedding department in Belk, 12 years ago, I was buying a new bedspread.  I called my mother to ask her what color I should buy.  My father answered, and told me he could help me decide since my mother wasn’t home.  This is funny because his sense of color stops at “If there’s one thing I know, it’s that brown and green go together,” his exact words.  I don’t think they do.  

Anyway, desperate, I told him the choices were white or cream. He was quiet for a minute, then blurted out ‘white!’  

Two days after the day my father would have been 88, I stop at the rows of bedspreads in the department store, and run my fingers over the same white matelasse pattern that is on my bed.  “Hey, Daddy,” I say in my head. 

That same night I was talking to Jimmy Moore. He and his wife, Lee, had been in a church supper club with my parents, and he told me a few stories about my father. Apparently they kidded each other a lot, and Jimmy said he teased my father about ‘marrying up’ and asking how he got someone as outstanding as my mother to marry him.  

“Heck, I’m the best thing that ever happened to her,” Jimmy quoted my father. 

I could see that twinkle in my father’s eye as plain as day, and I felt like he was right there in the room with me.  

(Ferris Robinson can be contacted at ferrisrobinson@gmail.com.  www.ferrisrobinson.com)

Ferris Robinson
Ferris Robinson
Happenings
Vintage Base Ball Opening Day For Chattanooga Clubs Is April 6
Vintage Base Ball Opening Day For Chattanooga Clubs Is April 6
  • 3/28/2024

The Lightfoot Club of Chattanooga and the Mountain City Club of Chattanooga will begin the 2024 season of vintage base ball (yep, two words) on the historic 6th Calvary polo field (6 Barnhardt ... more

4 Bridges Arts Festival Returns April 20-21
  • 3/28/2024

The Association for Visual Arts will present the 24th Annual 4 Bridges Arts Festival at the First Horizon Pavilion on the southside of downtown Chattanooga this April. The festival will take ... more

Volunteers Needed for American Battlefield Trust Park Day
  • 3/28/2024

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is seeking volunteers for American Battlefield Trust Park Day. Sign-up will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 6 at the intersection of Woodland ... more