My Dad

I was wanting to make a post about my dad on the 15th of January. That was the day he lost his battle to esophageal cancer six years ago. My scanner had not been working for about a whole year. I was bummed about it since it was a fairly new one and I hardly used it. More importantly, I could not scan photos to put on my computer. I felt that I should try just one more time and to my great surprise, I figured out how to make it work again! It was such a coincidence that it happened the night before my Dad's birthday. Joel August Ludlam was born on March 7, 1948 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Merchantville and Sweetwater, New Jersey.
He graduated from Merchantville High School in 1966, and was a member of their state championship basketball for four years. He attended Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina as a Pre-Med Student, and graduated in 1970. He then attended the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, graduating in 1974. He interned at the State University of New York in Manhattan, and later received his pharmaceutical certification from Pacific University. He completed his residency as Chief of Eyecare Services at Shiprock Hospital in Shiprock, NM in 1979. He served at professor of Public and Community Health at Ferris State University in Michigan, before returning to Arizona in 1980 to establish his practice. Soon afterwards, he and my mother met and got married in 1981. My Dad has practiced optometry on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, as well as Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson, Sun City, Scottsdale, Kingman and Lake Havasu City.

This is his high school graduation picture. I think he really looks like my brother Jeremiah in this picture.

I believe this is another senior portrait of him.

And this picture was taken when he was baptized in Shiprock, NM.

This is a portrait of him for his profession.

And this is a picture of us dancing for our daughter-father dance on my wedding day in November of 2003. We were both very happy that he able to make it. He died about 6 weeks later.
These are just a few pictures that I wanted to share. I miss my Dad so very much. We all do. It was such an unfortunate thing for him to leave this Earth and us at a "young" age but I am so grateful for the times we shared and all the things he taught me, gave me, and made possible for me. He was such a thoughtful person who loved to help others and cared much for the Earth, plants, animals, you name it. He loved anything to do with nature like gardening and deep sea fishing. He also loved to golf and to travel. He was quite interesting, always had much to say and knew so much about many things. He was a smart eye doctor and did so well in his profession.
He was loved by so many and vice versa. He was a great man indeed.