Me and Daddy
James Silas Alexander was my grandfather. We all called him Daddy. He was a self-educated man and there was nothing about history he did not know. He joined the U.S Navy in his teens and worked his way up to officer status. He was on a ship that patrolled the Yangtze River during WWII.
Daddy had a special bond with animals. I think he got that from his mother and he passed it onto most who were close to him. When Daddy was a boy he climbed over a fence and a rattlesnake was resting on the other side. The snake bit Daddy on his big toe and somehow Daddy survived the venom. Years later when I was bitten by a squirrel I remembered Daddy’s rattlesnake story and thought that my bite was a rites of passage.
Daddy was the most dignified and gentlemanly man I have ever met. I never saw him angry and I never heard him say anything that was not funny or true. He was the kind of man that you never forget.
A few days ago was the anniversary of his death. He died in the hospital on a Cardiac Intensive Care Unit in 1992. Looking back I am not surprised he died when none of us were in the room. We just couldn’t let Daddy go. I remember the day before he died I was at his bedside. His heart monitor began beeping and showing an abnormal rhythm. I got very scared and yelled, “Daddy!” His heart monitor then went back to normal. I realized then that we were all keeping Daddy with us.
It was Daddy who taught me how to ride a bicycle. I remember coming home from school and seeing my brand new bike in the front yard. I remember going to the fields with him to gather wild blackberries and putting them in his hat. Daddy called me “Pretty Girl” and “Copper Head”. I love you Daddy and I will never forget you!
MsAnthrope
What a wonderful tribute to a very kind man. Actually, Daddy was on a boat in the Yangtse in the 20s and early 30s. He served on the last commisioned sailing ship in the Us Navy, called the Isabelle. He spent many years in China. He commanded an LST in the Pacific during WWII. I have a picture of his ship.
When the rattlesnake bit him he was in a field far from home and walked to a neighbor's farm. The woman there stuck his foot in a bucket of kerosene, which everyone had for lighting, back then. He told me he could see the kerosene drawing the poison from his toe like green tendrils. The woman also sent her son running for Daddy's Mama, who was known in the neighborhood as a practical nurse and midwife.
Daddy was very sick at the neighbor's home for many days and Grandma Alec stayed there and nursed him. When the doctor finally got there in his horse and buggy he said there was nothing else he could do and Daddy would either make it or he wouldn't. He did, thank goodness, or there would have been no Pretty Girl.