The Most Brilliant Tribute to the World’s Best Dad. {Viral}

Source: facebook.com via Tara on Pinterest

“He taught them to fish, to select a quality hammer, to love nature, and to just be thankful.”

From the outside and looking in, and to all other strangers and passerbys—Harry Stamps was just another ordinary man. He wasn’t famous, never invented anything noteworthy or awe-inspiring (unless, perhaps you’ll consider his infamous Bunny White Bread sandwich), and he probably received a few ‘squinchy eyes’ for some of his more ‘pronounced’ views on life.

Unless, that is, you ask his daughter—in which case, she shall carefully recount all of those wonderfully delightful ‘stuff-in-between’ moments that made her so very happy that he was her Dad.

Word of warning, though, as a daughter’s view of her Dad will often rival the very best of “hero” novels around…

What began simply as, “Harry Weathersby Stamps, ladies’ man, foodie, natty dresser, and accomplished traveler” is now taking the internet by storm—capturing the very best of daughter views of the man she called her Dad.

And, in doing so—she’s given us all a glimpse of what it means to have a life, ‘well lived.’
Now, the obituary and her subsequent video have gone viral—touching the hearts of millions of readers worldwide. If you’ve not yet heard of Harry Weathersby Stamps, you soon will—as the obituary seems to be making it’s rounds everywhere.

Daughter, Amanda Lewis, told the Sun Herald that her father ironically wouldn’t even know what ‘viral’ means.

“He wouldn’t know what going viral means. He would have thought that was a disease he contracted, which would have excited him to have another illness to lord over folks,” said daughter Amanda Lewis, who wrote the obituary. An attorney who lives in Dallas, she wrote it during the trip to Long Beach, where Stamps died at home on Saturday, surrounded by his family.

For what it’s worth, and when it’s my time to go—I hope it’s the ‘stuff-in-between’ moments that get stuck in people’s heads.

Here is just a short excerpt of her tribute; the rest can be read online right here.

“Harry Weathersby Stamps, ladies’ man, foodie, natty dresser, and accomplished traveler, died on March 9, 2013.

He excelled at growing camellias, rebuilding houses after hurricanes, rocking, eradicating mole crickets from his front yard, composting pine needles, living within his means, outsmarting squirrels, never losing a game of competitive sickness, and reading any history book he could get his hands on.

He despised phonies, his 1969 Volvo (which he also loved), know-it-all Yankees, Southerners who used the words ‘veranda’ and ‘porte cochere’ to put on airs, eating grape leaves, Law and Order (all franchises), cats, and Martha Stewart.

He particularly hated Daylight Saving Time, which he referred to as The Devil’s Time. It is not lost on his family that he died the very day that he would have had to spring his clock forward. This can only be viewed as his final protest.

Finally, the family asks that in honor of Harry that you write your Congressman and ask for the repeal of Day Light Saving Time. Harry wanted everyone to get back on the Lord’s Time.”

Daughter, Amanda Lewis, fondly remembers her most amazing Dad.