The Man Behind The Desk

Dad has “clumb” many a teetering ladder and daftly walked too many sagging scaffolds while installing thousands of doors and windows in his lifetime.  It is certainly a tribute to the good Lord looking out for him or he would have died years ago.  On any given day he could be found tinkering with tools in the back shop and there was rarely a day where he couldn’t be found sitting behind his cluttered desk.  Every evening when it was time to go home after a hard day’s work he would flip the sign on the window and it would hang patiently waiting to be flipped again at precisely 8am the next morning.  Dad was a model of consistency and life seemed normal when he was sitting behind his desk or working in the shop. Unfortunately, that all came to end this week as Dad flipped the sign one last time effectively closing Marco Doors after more than 35 years of business.

I’ve watched Dad struggle the last few years with his declining health and slowed pace.  A few years ago he lost his ability to drive due to inner ear issues and the result has meant more time behind the old wood desk.  The business had gotten slower and slower as a result but Dad has stubbornly refused to give in to the inevitable march of time.  The last couple of years Marco has been run heroically by Hannah as she has stepped in to help keep Dad’s business stay afloat.  I think Dad has thought all these years that he was building a legacy business that would one day be taken over by one of his sons.  After all, many of his boys have also been an integral part of Marco at one time or another.  There was Bruce, Don, Ed, and short stints by others as well.  Dad has watched every one of his boys put in at least a little time in some form or fashion at Marco but for a variety of reason none of them wanted to take over the business.  I’m sure Dad thought Marco would become generational but it was not destined to be. 

Deciding to hang up his work hat has been difficult for but making it more difficult is a nagging feeling that he thinks he hasn’t left anything of tangible value for his family.  That's quite natural for someone 80 years old.  Every person in the twilight years of their life wonders if they have built something that will last beyond their own mortality.  Dad is feeling those pains right now as he looks at the empty business space that was once Marco Distributing.  If looked at in that light I can see how painful it must be for Dad to remember a once thriving business and now only see a dark store front.  That dark space hurts Dad emotionally especially as a somber and reflective old man.  Dad thought he was selling and installing windows and doors for the past 35 years but he is wrong.  Dad’s real job wasn’t installing doors and windows.  His real job was instilling integrity, honesty, and work ethic into everyone he came in contact with.  His sons and daughters may not have wanted to follow in his footsteps by flipping the open sign every morning at Marco but every single one of his sons and daughters has followed his example.    

As youngsters we ached to be old enough to go to work with Dad and as a result we watched him work and interact with customers and community members on a daily basis.  We watched him be honest when honesty cost him money.  We watched him have integrity when integrity wasn’t easy.  We watched him take the blame when he wasn’t to blame.  We watched him sacrifice his time when he didn’t have any time to sacrifice.  We watched him smile when he should have cried.  We watched him fall and get up when he could have stayed down.  We watched him get blisters, splinters, and bruises yet still hold his tongue when most men would have filled the air with a blue streak.  We watched him stay calm in situations that would have driven others to fits of anger.   As a result, Dad never had to sit us down and tell us how we were supposed to act.  Instead, we simply learned by watching his actions speak louder than his words.

So as the Marco Doors close for the last time this week Dad has in deed left a legacy not of business but of virtues taught to his family and community members over the past 35 years.   While the closed sign may hang permanently now from the Marco window, his legacy will certainly live on in the life's he as touched.  Dad’s family is about as diverse as you can find.  We are literally all over the map when it comes to careers, lifestyle, and belief but the core of who we are all traces directly back to the man behind the Marco desk and you can’t hang a closed sign on that!

Thanks Dad…Love Ya!