I just want to share a few things about our dad from my perspective as his son. When I was growing up, my dad was my hero. I felt like he could do anything, and I wanted to be just like him. One of the things he did was play softball, and he was good at it. He was the pitcher on the church team. So as a kid, I wanted to play baseball, and I wanted to be a pitcher. Dad would take me to practice and play catch in the front yard with me. We’d go to the park, and he would throw the ball as high as he could, and I would catch it. He helped me to be a better baseball player. But more significantly, he just wanted me to have fun and be a good sport. He never put pressure on me to make it to the Major Leagues, and he never treated me differently whether I hit a home run or struck out. As long as I was having fun, he was happy. I knew from a young age that my father loved me unconditionally.
As I got a little older, I began to observe how my dad would interact with people. I remember walking down the halls of First United Methodist Church and watching him talk to people. I realized one day that he treated everybody exactly the same. He had a genuine interest in people, and he didn’t care if you were rich or poor, outgoing or shy, popular or unpopular. He loved to ask questions and find out people’s life stories. If you spoke with an accent, he wanted to know all about where you were from. He had a tender and compassionate heart for people who were maybe a little different or outside of the mainstream. He made them feel special. He had a servant’s heart and never considered himself better than anyone else.
As a teenager, I became heavily involved with my church youth group. Dad would come along as an adult sponsor on ski trips to Colorado in the winter and to Christian Adventure Camp in the summer. On the ski trips, Dad would always volunteer to ski the bunny slopes with the first time skiers. He did it with humility and with joy in his heart.
At Christian Adventure Camp out in the Texas Hill Country, Dad and I spent some of our best father/son time together. We would often sit together at Morning Watch, which was a time to sit quietly by the Frio River and reflect on God’s Creation. We would also walk the Prayer Trail together with my sister Susanna. The Prayer Trail was a path of Bible verses to reflect on that were written on signs by the graduating seniors. I always loved having my dad at camp with me, and I never felt like he was invading my teenage space. My friends loved having him there, too, and they always felt like they could be themselves around him. He had kind of a teenage since of humor, so he fit right in. He loved corny jokes, and he was never afraid to be a dork. It actually came naturally, and I loved that about him. He made us all laugh a lot, and he still does. As Mom included in his obituary, one of his claims to fame is singing the worst ever rendition of John Denver’s “Country Roads” at camp. As Mom put it, he couldn’t sing, he knew it, and he celebrated it. He would also hum the first note every time our family sang “Happy Birthday To You,” and it would usually take us half the song to figure out which key we were in.
I mentioned earlier that I knew from a young age that my father loved me unconditionally. At my church service in Austin a few weeks ago, the pastor was preaching about how many people cannot accept the unconditional love from their heavenly father because they have not received it from their earthly father. I have no doubt that my father loved me unconditionally. I have no doubt that he loved my sister Kathleen unconditionally. I have no doubt that he loved my sister Susanna unconditionally. He allowed us to be children, and he allowed us to be the people who God intended us to be. I know he loved his grandchildren, Andrew, Reid, and Zachary. I know he loved his wife Kathy, his family, his friends, and his Lord. I am blessed to have Terry Lawrence Sladek as my earthly father, and I want to give thanks and glory to our Heavenly Father who loves us all unconditionally. Thank you.
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