John Paul Brady is a 1966 graduate of Lewisburg High School, a former school teacher and current pastor of Persimmon Baptist Church on the Kentucky side of Cincinnati.
My dad, Victor Brady, died in May 1972, about a year and a half after Sherri and I were married. Although it has been 40 years, it really doesn't seem that long ago.
Daddy was only 54 years old when he died. I can't believe that I am now 10 years older than he was when he left this world. He seemed so much older and mature then than I feel now.
I often think about all that my dad missed by dying at such an early age. I know he would have enjoyed his grandchildren, my two and Mike's three. He would have gone crazy over his great-grandchildren. Wow, 11 great grandchildren—I’m not sure how he would have handled that! I do know he would have been very proud of everyone of them.
He would have enjoyed getting to grow old with my mother, Louise. If both of them were alive today, my dad would be 94 and my mother almost 96.
I think about the changes that have come about in the last 40 years. I don't think my dad would have taken positively to many things that have become so commonplace for us today. If he could suddenly come back and drop in on our world today, he would be blown away. I can't see him doing Facebook or using an IPhone. I doubt if he would have cared anything about having a computer. I do think he would like the way TVs are today, although I don't believe he would care for the shows being aired. He would enjoy watching his St. Louis Cardinals play. I think he would like having a GPS in his car if he could figure out how to use it. I wonder what he would think about swiping a bank card at an ATM and getting money from a machine.
Having owned and operated Brady's Grocery, he would have been amazed that a person could go to a store and scan their own items and pay for them without the help of a checkout person. He certainly would not like stores like Wal-Mart or Lowes. He hated Sears and the large grocery stores. He always said that they were putting the little guy out of business. He was certainly right about that.
I don't think he would like the contemporary music that is a part of worship in many churches today. He would be surprised beyond belief over the controversy today over gays’ rights to get married. He would no doubt scratch his head when he became aware of the social problems we have with pedophilia, the drug culture, and the scandals in our government and in our economy.
One of the most unbelievable changes for him would be that our president is a black man. Unlike many people of his generation, I don't think he would be opposed to this, but it would be a surprise to him none the less. I'm sure it would disturb him that the name of God has become so offensive to many groups in our nation and that these groups are trying to silence Christians from using His name in public places.
My dad would be awed by all of the changes in the past 40 years, both the good changes and the bad. Knowing the kind of man he was I don't think he would complain about any 0f the negative changes or show a great deal of excitement about the good changes. I think he would probably just say, "My God is the same today as He's always been and everything is going to be alright."