My mom asked me to speak at my dad's funeral.
(I'll post more about the actual funeral and our trip to Washington in my next post.)
She told me to just share memories of my dad and talk about his character.
I honestly didn't think I was strong enough to go through with it.
I remember feeling pretty calm the morning of his funeral.
Probably because I was more focus on the logistics of the day.
But as soon as we walked into the chapel for the actual funeral, I lost it.
I couldn't see, I was crying too much.
Luckily I gained my composure again. And when it was my turn to speak I chocked up at first
but then remained pretty calm until the end of my talk.
I impressed myself! Of course I had to write my talk word for word.
I couldn't trust my self to keep my thoughts together at such an emotional time.
And I'm glad I wrote my talk because now I can have it too look back on.
...
Thank you for being here today and thank you for supporting my family in helping us
honoring my dad. My dad was an amazing man. But you all know that. That’s why you are here.
First, I would like to share some things with you that you may not know about my dad…
*My dad’s full name is Donald Dean Fast. But he usually went by Donn. D-O-N-N. He
spelt Donn with two N’s that way each one of his names had four letters. Four letters in
Donn, four letters in Dean and four letters in Fast.
*My dad’s favorite color was yellow. He also loved the color red.
*His favorite song was Clair de Lune. He loved classical music. He enjoyed listening to
Beethoven and Mozart. He also loved Andre Rieu who plays a lot of waltz music.
*My dad loved Snickers. He loved anything with caramel. He just really loved caramel.
*My dad’s favorite book was The Book of Mormon and the Bible. He was very spiritual
man.
*My dad loved listening to General Conference. General Conference is a special
meeting held twice a year in our church where the prophet and other leaders speak to
us. My dad has listened to every conference talk from the last several decades at least
once. He would listen to conference talks at night in bed on his iPad when he couldn’t
sleep. My mom would often wake up to the sound of someone giving a talk.
*My dad loved flowers. He really liked tulips. But I would say that his flower is the
Stargazer Lily, which can be found on your program. You see this was the flower in my
mom’s bouquet when they got married. And whenever my dad would send my mom
flowers, which was regularly, he would make sure to include at least One Stargazer lily.
My dad was such a romantic.
*When my dad was a boy he helped work in a diner that his family owned, Rudy’s
Dinner. One of his jobs was to help cut the French fries. That is where my dad learned
to love French fries. That’s also where my dad learned to love ice cream.
*My dad’s favorite dessert was ice cream. He could eat ice cream every night. He loved
all ice cream but he especially loved soft serve ice cream.
*He also loved cherry rhubarb pie and raisin pie. I honestly have no idea what raisin pie
even is.
*When my dad was in the hospital last November, I asked him what his favorite food
was and his response was, “Warm.” Haha. That’s so my dad. He was always cracking
jokes.
*My dad had a great sense of humor. He was always telling jokes and laughing. He had
the best laugh.
*My dad’s number one comfort food was chicken noodle soup. When he was a boy his
grandmother lived with him and she would make him homemade chicken noodle soup.
*A few months ago my dad told me that his favorite movie is “Cannery Row.” He told me
that is was a love story based off of two John Steinbeck novels. After he passed, I
watched a trailer for Cannery Row and I could not stop laughing. It looked like the
strangest movie! I could not believe it was my dad’s favorite. So if you want to shake
your head and have a good laugh go google the movie trailer for Cannery Row.
*When my dad was a young boy, he lived in a small town in Minnesota. They didn’t
have toilet paper. My dad remembers using magazines instead. They were glossy and
left ink on you. Maybe this is one of the reasons that my dad loved plush toilet paper.
*My dad was born in 1945 just a little bit before World War Two ended. We lived to
tease him that he so old he had survived the war.
*My dad had the widest feet. It was hard for him to find shoes because of it. He also had
the shortest feet too. We teased him that he had Flintstone feet.
*My parents had their first kiss at Chuckee Cheese. So romantic! Most of their dates
actually consisted of taking me and my younger brother Ryan out.
I have so many memories of my dad. I’d like share a few with you.
*When I was a kid, my ears got very infected after I got them pierced. My mom
needed to take my earrings outs but it was very painful. I said that I would be okay as
long as my dad held me. I always wanted him if I was hurt. I used to call him my Doctor
Donn
.
*When I was a kid, my family used to play the game Settlers of Zarahelma. It is a
Mormon knock off version of Settlers of Catan. My dad was horrible at the game. Just
awful. I am not sure if he ever won. But he would still play it. He was such a good sport.
Especially since we always laughed at how horrible he was!
*My dad was such a smart man. He knew the most random things. His
knowledge continually amazed me. It was because of this that my dad was amazing at
Battle of the Sexes. He basically would win the game for the guys’ team every time. It
was crazy! He knew things that none of the girls knew!
*When I was in high school my dad would drive me to my Wednesday church
activity. There was always traffic so it would take us a long time to get to the church. I
remember we would spend a lot of time listening to the Mariner’s games on the radio.
My dad loved listening to the games.
*My parents will tell you that my senior prom was the most expensive school
dance I ever went to. Here’s the story. Prom was coming and the grass was getting long
at our house. I wanted it mowed so we could take pictures outside. And since the lawn
mower wasn’t working, my dad went and bought a John Deer riding lawn mower. He
was so excited. But he counted that as a prom expense!
*When I was in high school, I loved having parties. My best friend Opal and I
liked to have combined birthday parties since our birthdays are just a day apart. One
year we decided to have a toga party. And my dad dressed up like Julius Caesar. I sent
up a backdrop in the garage and all of my friends took turns taking pictures with my dad.
He was so fun and really got into character.
*One of my favorite memories of my dad happened just a few weeks after I got
married. I was with my dad and my husband at the temple. A lady there came up to my
dad and asked him if I was his daughter, he said yes. And the lady told him that she
could tell because of the family resemblance. He didn’t tell her that we weren’t
genetically related. Instead my dad just beamed with pride.
*Whenever we got together as a family you could always find my dad in the
kitchen. He was always so willing to clean up and do the dishes.
*When my oldest was born my parents and brother came to Idaho to visit us.
When Lexi would wake up at night she would eat and then stay awake. This left me
feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. My dad told us that we could bring Lexi to him
when she wasn’t sleeping. So that whole week, anytime Lexi wouldn’t go to sleep, Sean
would take Lexi to her grandpa at all hours of the night and my dad would pop right up
and gladly take her.
*My dad loved being a grandpa. He was always on the floor with his
grandbabies. He loved playing with them and snuggling up to them.
*Lexi my oldest daughter, loves to talk to her grandparents on the phone. My dad
would happily listen to Lexi ramble on and on and just loved every minute of it. He truly
was interested in her and what she had to say.
I’m sure most of you are aware that Donn is technically my stepdad. But it every way he
is my dad. You see, he’s always been there for me. I literally cannot remember my life
before him. He and my mom started dating around the time I started kindergarten. He is
been one of the biggest blessing in my life. I am grateful every day that he choose not
only my mom, but my brother and I.
*I’d like to share with you the lyrics to the song that I’ve always consider my dad’s
and mine and my brother’s song. It’s by Brad Paisley and it’s called, “He Didn’t Have to Be.”
And it’s from the perspective of a boy, so I should probably have
my brother come up here and sing it. But I won’t do that. And I always won’t sing it.
You’re welcome. I’ll just read the first verse and chorus.
"When a single mom goes out on a date with somebody new
It always winds up feeling more like a job interview
My mama used to wonder if she'd ever meet someone
Who wouldn't find out about me and then turn around and run
I met the man I call my dad when I was five years old
He took my mom out to a movie and for once I got to go
A few months later I remember lying there in bed
I overheard him pop the question and I prayed that she'd say yes
And then all of a sudden it seemed so strange to me
How we went from something's missing to a family
Lookin'; back all I can say about all the things he did for me
Is I hope I'm at least half the dad that he didn't have to be"
My dad was selfless, he was always putting others before himself. He was full of love.
He was thoughtful. He was sensitive of other’s feeling. He was romantic. He adored my
mom. He was spiritual. He loved his Father in Heaven. He was a family man. His family
was the most important thing in his life.
"Dad…
Your life was a blessing
Your memory a treasure…
You are loved beyond words
And missed beyond measure…"
