One night Dan and I visited my 96-year-old father in his assisted living apartment. Dan got into my dad’s wheelchair and started doing wheelies around the room. Dan was the biggest kid I knew and never missed a chance to play.

Dan finally stopped the chair in front of my Dad’s recliner “Do you mind if I marry your daughter?” I was shocked as I didn’t know this was coming. A man usually asks your Father when you aren’t there but Dan was up for the weekend and had asked to see him.

Without missing a beat my dad responded, ” Why? Do you HAVE to get married?”

Dan laughed “No seriously. I’m being respectful. I want your blessing.” My father looked at me and said “Well Jeanne do what you want. But does Dan golf?”

I looked at Dan and mouthed. “Say yes”

Dan nodded, “Yes. Yes, I do”

My father’s face lit up. “Dan the man! I knew you were a good man, Dan!”

Later, after we left:

Dan “I don’t like lying. I don’t golf.”

Me: “You just made an old man happy. Golfing is a requirement to marry one of his daughters.

“Ok, but it’s still lying”

I laughed. My father at 96 was highly unlikely to get Dan out on a course with him. But Dan always wanted to be truthful, honest, and do the right thing.

My father died 2 months later.