
Roger and Darlene Haag with daughters (from left) Donna and Janis, Orange, California, circa 1965 (photo by Grandpa James Keeley)
Dear Dad,
our father, Roger, who art in heaven:
The little girls in this photo couldn’t understand
why you moved them far from a town called Orange
to a lake called Folsom, pulling them away from
sidewalks begging for roller skates and bikes,
away from Disneyland, to a rural life of poison oak
and no sidewalks and taking the bus to school
and summer heat the likes of which we’d never felt.
But you and Mom taught us to waterski on that lake,
and we learned to avoid the poison oak, spending
hours walking in the state park across the road,
plopped on our bellies in spring grass, surrounded
by wildflowers—blue dicks, shooting stars and lofty
lupine, the artistic Indian paintbrush, and oh,
the poppies that bobbed their happy heads at us,
a different kind of orange, welcoming us home.
Thank you and love,
Jan and Donna
Father’s Day 2019
In memory of Roger E. Haag
1930–2004
Lovely.
Thanks.
Love, Mom
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photo doesn’t show in email, but I went to the website. Cute pic!!
Love, Mom
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Nice tribute, Sistah!