I'm just a phone call away

I'm just a phone call away, I've heard this a lot in the past week or so.  Friends, family, and everyone in between have said this to me, and it truly means a lot but nothing meant as much as when my parents said it.  Daddy called me at least three times a day sometimes more like 10 times.  Mom and I would talk then I would call daddy and relay whatever "news" mom and I had discussed, now mom and dad talked but by the time daddy talked to her, he had forgotten that I had already told him or vice versa.  Dad would call me with a new joke or to see what HOT was doing or to ask me to fax bills.  The point is we talked a lot!
Daddy loved his phone. I remember him getting his first cell phone, this is back when they came in a bag, huge phones for the car.   Daddy had a wrecker service back then and he hated to miss a call.  When we were inside he couldn't hear the phone ring so he fixed that problem he had it wired through his horn.  So when the phone rang and the truck was off the horn would blow, that got old quick!  Up until about two years ago he still had a big brick phone.  We always teased him that it would be buried with him because he didn't want to give that one up.  He finally switched to a flip phone, he could dial out and sometimes find a number he was looking for but he would call me and I would have to get the messages off the phone for him.  I don't think he would have ever figured out a smart phone.  I have so many memories of daddy but today I'll just share a few that involve phones...
So one night he and mom were at a funeral.  Up near the casket their was a wreath with a phone in the middle that said "Jesus called" during the car ride home daddy told mama about this wreath and said he wasn't answering their phone anymore, to which mama replied "it's ok if Jesus was calling it wouldn't be for you" Mama over the years picked up daddy's wit.  Daddy loved telling everyone that.  Daddy called one of our customers one day and the phone conservation went like this (now remember daddy call him). "Hey Harold this is Van call me back" he hung up the phone and looked around and said "ahhhh shit".  He called the guy back and said he hadn't taken his medicine that day and corrected his message.  Daddy always blamed things he did, well the bad things anyway, on not
taking his meds.

 One night during his wrecker service years daddy got a call from the state patrols office, they needed him at a wreck.  Daddy said ok and got he location.  It was the middle of the night like a lot of calls were, well instead of getting up he dozed back off.  Maybe an hour later they called back to ask him if he had sent someone, daddy thinking quick said " he isn't there yet?  Guess I'll have to come myself". Daddy was quick like that,  he always had a come back for ya even in the middle of the night.
When we switched to Nextel many years ago, we had direct connect, which is basically like Walkie talkies made into your phone.  Daddy would drive me crazy with it.  He would know I would be in Walmart or in a crowd and I never opted for the clip to wear my phone so it was always in my purse, so he would two way me and say "let me out of here!  Help me I'm stuck in her purse!  I can't breathe in here!"  Boy did I get some looks!
Daddy loved to call people and pull jokes on them.  My friend that he called tattoo mama received a call from him one night.  He called her and told her she won a wet t-shirt contest and her prize was dinner.  He paid for our dinner that night, I'm pretty sure we went to red lobster.
Yep daddy and I talked a lot.  While he was on the road he got bored so that was his way to kill time. But I never hung up without hearing my daddy say he loved me, and I didn't say it first he would say "you too" to which I would reply I love you daddy and he again would say you too.
One of the hardest things I deal with is that daddy and I talked everyday, all but the day before he died.  I was sick and spent my day sleeping.  Mama and told him I was sick so he didn't call because he didn't want to wake me.  I wish he had.  The last time I spoke to my daddy was Saturday May 17, we were taking Corbin out and mom had given him 10 dollars to spend so daddy told me to give him 11 dollars from him.  We talked like usual and then I hung up.  If I had only known this would have been the last time I would have stayed on the phone the hours telling him how much I loved him and I would have thanked him for everything he's done for me.  But you never know.
Everyday when I wake up or when we come home I check my phone for that flashing light to see if my daddy might have left me a message.  But I know it's not.  I did find some old messages the other day on the phone from him and it's so nice to hear his voice and laugh at the things he would say.  There was a message to call headquarters, which was home.  One message he said he was from the lost and found department, they had my phone and if I wanted it, all I had to do was come home.  He also left a message that I should change my middle name to Go because I was always in the road.  These are the little things that make losing my daddy so hard!  Sure do wish he was just a phone call away now.

What's your name?

Despite that it shows this is Corbin's blog, this one is actually mine.  I'm Cathy or little mama depending on who you ask.  Now my daddy didn't give me this name, our neighbor did actually and can you guess why?  I tend to be a bit bossy and apparently I've had this trait all my life because I acquired this name before I was even 5.  So now if you knew my daddy well you most likely had a nickname.  So my mom is sivie-o or Nellie when he wanted to rattle her feathers.  He had a nephew he called Da.  His sister was Tiny.  He called one girl spot and until recently I never knew why.  I had friends and he never could remember their names so he called them Volkswagen mama and tattoo mama.   A lady at church attended a ladies dinner with my mom, they served lasagna a but apparently it had very little meat in it, so she asked my mom "where's the beef" like the old ad, so mom told dad about this when she got home, so from then on she was known as where's the beef lady.  He has a friend who he swears sounds like Kitty Wells, the country singer and one lady he swore looked just like Minnie Pearl.  My husband was Chris-co and so was a coworker before that.  Daddy called one worker just TP, which were his initials. One guy that hung around daddy for many years was Dean-o.  When I started keeping Chris's nephew Devin, daddy couldn't remember his name either so he called him Dog.    My nephew Robert became OBT and that stuck for years but it was mostly because that is the only letters he could remember from his name.  But my favorite nickname story has to be Corbin's  story.  When I found out I was pregnant daddy instantly through of the idea to name our baby if it was a boy...Herman Omer Tweedell.  Herman after his daddy, Omer after Chris's granddaddy, and well you know where Tweedell came from.  Now why would be choose this?  So his initials would be HOT.  Well I ended up having a boy but his name is not HOT, instead we named him Corbin Wilson Tweedell.  Even though I didn't name him HOT that is all my daddy ever called him.   Daddy couldn't wait til this summer he wanted to holler outside when Devin was over and say hey HOT and DOG y'all want a hot dog?
I love my nickname and even though daddy didn't give it to me, I loved when he called me that.   I tried to persuade him to buy me a Mother's Day gift one year because he calls me little mama all the time but it didn't work. And even though daddy was good at giving names he was just plain ol Harold to everyone.  Well he was my daddy pop but everyone else including his grandson just called him Harold.  Grandpa was for old people and daddy never acted old.

The Purpose of this Blog

On May 19, 2014 I woke up and it felt like any other day.  Other than Corbin and I battling a cold everything in our little world was perfect.  We were just hanging out on the couch and at 9:30 am my phone rang.  I saw it was my daddy's phone number and with it being Monday I knew a to do list was waiting for me on the other end of phone, or at least that is what I expected.  Sadly I was wrong, it was my mom telling me that daddy had fallen and he was being taken to the hospital.  Now daddy had fallen recently but he refused to go to the hospital, mom bandaged him up and back to work he went, so I knew it was serious if he was already heading to the hospital.  I threw on our clothes and took off out the door just Corbin and I since Chris was working.  When I got to the hospital the chaplain meet me at the door and I felt like the air had been knocked out of me.  I knew it was bad.  We couldn't see him nor did we have any information.  What seemed like hours passed but I'm sure it was only a few minutes a group of doctors came in and told us that it was bad and he didn't make it.  My world came crashing down.  The first man I loved, the one who spoiled me, loved me with no conditions was gone.  In the blink of an eye everything was upside down.  I wanted to run, get away from this horrible news, or better yet just wake up to find out this is just some horrible nightmare!  I couldn't run away or wake up, this was it.  My daddy, the best daddy in the world was gone.  Somehow I managed to call Chris to tell him  and he was already on his way.  The next week would be the hardest days if my life.  This past week I have cried more than I ever have before.  As much as I have cried I have laughed too.  If you knew my daddy you know he loved to make people laugh.  He loved telling jokes and if daddy liked you he would pick on you.  Most people he knew had a nickname.  We've been completely blessed to be surrounded by friends and family during this time and over this past week I've heard so many stories of funny things my daddy did and ways he has helped people out.  Over the years I'm sure I will forget all these little memories so I dearly want to hold on to.  So here is my solution, I will begin documenting them here,  I am going to try to keep it updated with silly things daddy did or said and I hope that if you are reading this that you leave reading this with a smile and a laugh.