Happy Father's Day! Remembering Harley D. Semple (1901-1974)
Harley D. Semple, circa 1972 ______________________________ My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me. --Jim Valvano Harley D. Semple, my grandfather Dee-Dee, was a very special man. Not only did he and my grandmother Mo raise me, but they did so at a time in their lives when they should have been retired and free of child rearing. Taking me in must have been a huge sacrifice, but I never got the sense that I was a bother. Still, I was always a bit at odds with Mo because, even as a child, I had a suspicion that she was the one who made the final decision to leave Robin, my baby sister, with my stepfather’s family. In our family, Dee-Dee never made those kinds of decisions, but, in my heart, I know he would have been more than okay with having Robin around. Indeed, Mo, in her last years, admitted that leaving my sister behind had been one of her greatest regrets. My relationship with Mo and Dee-Dee was complicated; as I grew into my teen y