Dear dad,
There are some moments 
When I experience deja vu 
Especially when I am 
Thinking only of you 
I get transported 
In the memories of the past 
Why those good times didn’t last
Since your death, I found
My reveries to be
Where it’s just you and me...


It still does not feel real, but knowing you are no longer in pain is the only thing that will get me through this. One of my favorite memories is of you teasing me in the living room, pretending that you were going to take my pink Care Bear away from me— to this day I still have that bear, tail singed from the fire place and all. I’m so fortunate to be your granddaughter, and I promise to continue making you proud. I love you more than I could ever express, and I’ll miss you terribly Grandad. 

In general, but especially on Summer trips with my father on the road - he taught me so much about life, responsibility, honesty, integrity and hard work. Those lessons and the head-start in life he and my mother made possible are directly attributable to the man that I became - and I strive to live up to his example as a father, provider and husband of nearly 60 years.

As one of Jehovah's Witnesses, my father's belief was not in an afterlife immediately following death - as the Bible says "The dead are conscious of nothing at all." - (Eccl 9:5). His faith was in a future resurrection of the dead back to everlasting life on a Paradise Earth. So I'll make no comments about my father's current state, other than to say he's at piece now - his pain has ended. He lives on in our hearts and memories. But I greatly look forward to seeing my father again at the time of the resurrection. - Ac 24:15.

My father was a serious man who had a major contradiction - in that he greatly enjoyed laughter. The great sound of his laugh will always remain with me, because recently (for the first time in my life), I've started to clearly hear my father's laugh coming from ME - whenever I laugh hard. Renee has even said, "you sound like John". If you made or heard John W. Smith laugh, then you've been present for one of the many enjoyable moments of his life.

My father enjoyed Westerns and Star Trek, so he spent a lot of time either viewing the distant past or looking far into the future - that is, when he wasn't working. To that, I've yet to meet a harder working man than my father. This man was earning six figures as a truck driver when most people like him were struggling to even earn five figures. My father's work ethic allowed me to grow up in a large house on a corner lot with a Lake on one side and a golf course on the other - a pool in the back yard and only 10 minutes from the ocean. I was never on a school bus - I could ride my bike to school.

Now being a truck driver, he was gone often, working to provide for his family. So I was happy whenever I heard his truck pulling in at the house. I'd run out as a kid and climb up to the  truck's window as he backed in. Then I'd climb in and empty out all the change from his ashtray. It was always filled with quarters, dimes and nickels... But I didn't learn until I was an adult (over two decades later) - that he would often stop at the store up the road to get more coins if the ashtray wasn't already full. A father now myself, I'm sure he was sad once I reached an age where I no longer came out to greet him when he came home - and raid his ashtray for coins. But when I still did, getting to go on the road with my father during Summer breaks was something I always looked forward to each year.

THANK YOU for being my FATHER - I love you DAD!

Dad
I can’t tell you Dad
How many tears I’ve cried
Since the day I was told
My beloved Day had died.

It seems so impossible
Although I know it’s true
As everything I see around
Reminds me, of you.

I can still hear your laughter
And see your smiling face
I would have lost my sanity
If not, for Gods saving grace.

I have to close this letter now,
But this is not goodbye
For you will forever, be with me
In my heart and mind.

Forever ol' GOAT 

OBITUARY

John Wesley Smith Jr.

30 July, 1939 – 29 November, 2019

Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park & Funeral Home

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