My 79-year-old dad, Walt Pierce, does such a great job with his blog that he puts me to shame. So after the great family fish fry we had last night I thought I'd take a few minutes and post a personal blog article myself. This is a photo of my dad to the left. He is scheduled to have hip surgery sometime within the month. He's been in horrible pain for about six months now. He called me a week ago and said that he'd like to come down next Friday and treat Mary Kay and me to a fish fry. He also said that he'd love to see some of the kids if any of them would like to come.
I called all four of my kids and don't you know that each one of them ended up coming! And they all brought their families!
My youngest daughter Jillian and her new husband Tim were the first to arrive. They didn't have classes on Friday so they decided to come down on Thursday evening. My daughter Jennifer called me Thursday morning and told me that she was able to switch her shift from evening to day so she'd be able to come, but she wondered if I could babysit her daughter (my granddaughter) Violet overnight. Violet is such a delight. Of course I said "yes." Here's a pic (on the right) of my daughter Jillian and my granddaughter Violet from the night before the fish fry.
Word got out about the big family fish fry. I received a phone call from my sister-in-law, Amy (Todd's wife) telling me that she had a college reunion on Saturday at Mount Vernon University - only 35 miles south of here. My sister Kimberly called me and told me she had extra tickets to the Ohio State football game on Saturday and would Todd and I like to go? (Can you say "OH... IO...?") So Kimberly and her son Riley came for the night along with Todd and Amy. Every bedroom in the Pierce B&B would be filled! The picture on the left above includes my niece, Christy Anne, who drove down from Cleveland, when she heard the fish fry news, along with my daughters Jennifer and Jillian, and Todd's wife, Amy (also Chrisy's mom!) 
The photo on the right is the three amigos, my sister, Kimberly, is the good looking one in the middle. My brother Todd is on the right. Of course that's me on the left. I wore a sports jacket for the evening. Everyone wondered why until someone asked me about my Kindle, which question I knew would come up sooner or later. I then proceeded to take my new Kindle 3 out of my inside jacket pocket, demonstrating its smaller size and closeness to my heart... Ha!
The entire evening was more like Christmas than a quickly called fish fry. We missed my son's wife, Bethany, who didn't come because she was a little sick and was worried about giving a bug to my dad. But Jonathan came with all four of his children. It was great to see all my grandchildren playing together. The pic on the left is of my Dad and my son, Jonathan.
Most of the evening we missed my daughter, Jessica, who ironically may be the most family oriented member of the family. She never misses an opportunity to be with the clan. Sadly, she was scheduled to work her job at Bob Evans (she has two jobs plus school!) Friday night and didn't think it was right to call off sick just to come to the fish fry. She was promised she would be off by 7:30 so she could come. But then 3 other people called off and she had to work until 9PM. 
She called me as soon as she got off with tears in her eyes, wondering if Grandpa was still here. Actually he was in the driveway pulling out to go home. I ran out into the street to stop him, telling him how badly Jessica wanted to see him. He pulled right back into the drive and waited for her to show up. They had a great chat together. Dad and Jessica pictured on the right.
I think it is really a testimony to my dad that with only a week's notice, 24 people from our family would rearrange their life schedules so they can get together for something so simple as a family fish fry. Of course it wouldn't have mattered whether it was a fish fry or some other event. After a lifetime with my dad, family members know that anything that he hosts is going to be fun and enjoyable. We remember the square dances, the hawaiian luaus, the campouts, and the many cookouts. Dad says, "food's on," and we be there. It also says something about my dad's character that even though he is in a lot of pain right now with his hip, he doesn't just resign life. He still lives life to the fullest... with a little help from some well timed pain medication! With apologies to one of my favorite English writers, Douglas Adams, "Thanks, Dad, for all the fish!"
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