Scenes and poignant stories show the lasting love and influence of a father

The four daughters of Joe Thie—Martha, left, Cecelia, Mary Ann and Therese—share a Father’s Day with their dad, whose example helped inspire them to become nurses. (Submitted photo)

(Editor’s note: In anticipation of Father’s Day, The Criterion has invited our readers to share their stories about how their father’s influence has shaped their life and their faith. Here are some of their stories. More will be shared in future issues.)
 

By John Shaughnessy

Clarine Baker couldn’t sleep that night, worrying about her father’s reaction, knowing what she had done to his prized car.

A teenager at the time, Baker had asked her dad that day if she could use his 1957 Chevy to drive to her part-time job working in the box office of a theater. She was surprised when he said yes—and wished he hadn’t when she drove the car home.

“Coming home, I noticed the garage door open,” recalls Baker, a member of St. Bartholomew Parish in Columbus. “I felt very confident I could park in the garage. Well, part-way in, I scrapped the right side of the car. I knew best just to leave it there. Going to bed, I was not able to sleep.

“When morning finally came, I peered out the window, and there was my father with two jacks. He had moved the car.”

Baker came out of the house, “walking ever so gingerly” toward her father, fearful of his reaction.

“He met me with open arms and said, ‘Next time just leave the car out.’ Of course, I couldn’t hold back the tears. And what was amazing is that he never mentioned the incident again.”

Baker shares other memories of her dad.

There was the morning ritual when the family gathered around the table for breakfast and they folded hands as their father led them in prayer.

And she loves the story of the one treasure that her dad always kept close to him when he served in the U.S. Army during World War I.

“He carried in his wallet the picture of the girl he was to marry—our mother,” Baker notes about her late parents, Peter and Rosa Pfeifer. “He said that picture is what brought him home. We cherish that wallet and the worn, wrinkled picture inside. My sister still has it.”

She can picture him still.

“As a family, we reflect on his faith, his wisdom and his resilience to keep going. God rest his soul.”

‘I was blessed to be his daughter’

Martha Thie says that people still smile when her dad’s name is mentioned.

As one of the six children of Joe and Veronica Thie, she flashes that same expression when she shares details about her father’s life.

It’s a life that reveals that one of a father’s greatest gifts to his children is knowing he is someone they can rely on, someone who will be there for them. That’s the way Joe Thie tried to approach everything he did.

Born in 1898, he attended a one-room schoolhouse in the small, southeastern Indiana community of Enochsburg. After getting an education through eighth grade, he had to leave school because his family was poor, and his help was needed on the family farm.

He had the same focus on family and faithfulness in his role as a father.

“Joe supported a large family of six by being an orderly at the old St. Vincent’s hospital on Capitol Avenue in Indianapolis,” says Martha, a member of St. Pius X Parish in Indianapolis. “For extra money, he cared for male patients in their homes after work and took calls to help people in the middle of the night.”

Her dad was “cherished by many at St. Vincent’s,” she adds, especially the nurses and nursing students he assisted.

“He also received Communion every morning at six at Little Flower [St. Therese of the Infant Jesus Church in Indianapolis]. Despite having little sleep, he made it to work at 7 a.m. In 35 years of service at St. Vincent’s, he only missed two weeks of work because he had an appendectomy.”

Her dad also made time to take his children to their different activities, and her parents ran the Thanksgiving clothing drive at Little Flower. In retirement, he also worked as the custodian of the parish’s church.

“On his 80th birthday, he received over 200 cards from nursing students that he often would help,” says Martha, noting that she and her three sisters became nurses.

“Humility, loyalty, dedication, kindness and a quick wit were some of Joe’s characteristics,” she says. “Even today, people will smile when the name of Joe Thie is mentioned. I was blessed to be his daughter.” †