As another year without my dad, Allen Spencer, slips behind me, I find myself wondering where the years could have gone. How could it be eighteen years on this earth without my dad. I somehow had this idea for most of my young life, that he would always be here. Oh, I know that thought isn’t even reasonable, but then most kids aren’t reasonable, are they? My dad was an amazing dad. He was always so patient and kind. Even in the face of homework struggles, he remained calm and patient. If we came home with a bad progress report, he just said, “Well, we will have to work on that then”…and we did. He and mom, Collene Spencer managed to pull all five of their girls through the school years and into successful adulthood.
Having five daughters, and no sons, my dad lived a unique kind of life. He was always outnumbered, especially when it came to time in the bathroom, while five girls were trying to get ready for school or some other function. I don’t know how he managed, considering that our house only had one bathroom. He must have 
rushed in their around 5:00am, so he could get out by the time we were awake. He didn’t even complain…too much. He was always proud of his beautiful wife and daughters, and he knew that “all that beauty” took time, so he let us have our time and space to get to where we felt ready to face the world. Nevertheless, I’m sure he wondered if he would ever get in the bathroom sometimes.
Dad was a veteran of World War II and served as a Flight Engineer-Top Turret Gunner on a B-17 Bomber. It was an occupation of which we were all very proud, and Dad was very proud to serve his country. While he was very proud to serve his country, and proud of his time on the B-17, Dad never really talked about the war. That was common for men of that era. They simply did what they had to do, and never really told the tales about it. I was always sorry about that, because I think my sisters and I would have loved to hear more about his time in the Army Air Force. We did get a glimpse, years later, when two of his grandchildren did an interview for a class 
project, and Dad finally opened up a little. He also opened up once with his older brother, Bill Spencer, and as we listened to their conversation, we caught a little bit about what they remembered. It was all very interesting, but hard to wrap our heads around, as it seemed almost more like a movie by then. Still, we knew that he was an honored member of the service, and that made us very proud. Today would have been my dad’s 101st birthday. Happy birthday in Heaven, Dad. We love and miss you very much and can’t wait until we see you again.
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