Happy 87th Birthday to my dad

Feb. 12,1920 Clinton Lincoln Lee was born. Tomorrow my dad would have been 87 years old.
It's so hard for me to imagine what it would be like to have him that age because my dad passed away at the very young age of 56. I was only 16 years old.
Most of my memories of my dad are of when he was ill. He had started smoking at a very young age and his father owned a sand and gravel business that my dad ended up owning so between the cigarettes and dust from the sand his lungs were doomed. He died from emphysema.

I wanted to write about a few of the things that my dad enjoyed. He had a great love for horses. He had a barn in the river bottoms where he had several acres of land. At one time we had 16 horses. He loved to spend time down there and shoot the bull with his friends as they trained the horses on the walker. He loved traveling all over watching the horses race. We would travel to St. George, Idaho, Wyoming and lots of other places. We would watch the cutter races in Heber in the winter time. He made many friends throughout the years as he enjoyed the horse/race scene. One of his good friends was Lyle Davis. He did a lot of the training for dad. I remember mom would get mad at him because he was supposed to be trying to stop smoking and she would go down to the barn and find his cigarettes. I remember spending time down there helping dad clean the stalls. He bought me a new horse for my birthday. I named him Red Feather. I used to spend time down there racing around the barrels he would sit up for us. I used to love hanging onto the walker that you hook the horses up to for exercise. We would go around and around in circles forever.

Dad was so proud of his business up Provo Canyon. It was Lee Sand and Gravel. He had great big dump trucks and I loved riding in them. He used to donate sand and gravel to different projects like the BYU stadium. He built mom and dads beautiful back yard by hand. He hauled in great big huge rocks and did all the beautiful landscape.

I also remember the day that my grandmother died. It was only one of two times that I ever saw my dad break down and cry. He loved his motherinlaw so much.

I remember when my dad finally had to be continually hooked up to an oxygen tank. He would carry his little tank around with him everywhere. He used to go up to the Chalet in Provo Canyon and have breakfast and coffee with his friends. But then it got to the point where he would be out of breath all the time. He was pretty well home bound. My dad had such a dry sense of humor. He was a very smart man with great wisdom. Always had such good advice. But being a teenager I took him for granted. You never expect your parents to die when you are so young. Another special memory of my dad was having him baptized on the day that I was. Larry baptized both of us. That made it a fun day and more memorable for me.

I remember coming home from an Orem High basketball game in Salt Lake. It was March 18, 1976. I was with Roger and when I got home there was a note on the table that mom had written. All it said was "dad is really bad. Please come to the hospital." I hurried down there and dad was in a coma. A couple of his friends had tried to go in and give him a blessing but the doctors ushered them out because he had taken a turn for the worse. It was a long night and each of us took a turn saying our good byes to dad. We wept over his body as it lay there motionless. It's still hard to think of that night to this day and it's been 31 years. I loved my dad very much. He was such a hard worker. He was very stern in his disciplining but we knew it was for the best. I miss him so much and always have wished that he could have seen me graduate from high school, get married, have children, see my grand children. But God had other plans for him.

The picture of him on the sofa is mostly how I remember him. The picture of him in his army outfit is so handsome. And the other picture is of him and his good friend, Jim Diamond. They're with one of his big dump trucks from his business.

Happy Birthday Dad...