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Published Sunday, June 21, 2009 in Local

There's no age limit on second chances

By Jeff Bishop

The Times-Herald

Sharon Ragan was only 10 years old when her father died from cancer. She grew up with no father to hug on Father's Day.

When she led the East Coweta High School cheerleaders at Indian football games at the old McKnight Field, she didn't have a father in the bleachers cheering her on. When she became ECHS homecoming queen, her father wasn't there to see it.

But it's never too late. Sometimes the most unexpected things happen.

"My mom was single forever and ever," said Ragan, who now operates the Upper Cut in Sharpsburg. "She was kind of funny about it. She said, 'I'm not going to have some man telling my kids what to do!'"

Martha Massengale had made this clear to everyone, so it came as something of a shock when family friend William Tinsley stopped her one Sunday on the front steps of the Senoia United Methodist Church.

"He asked her out, right there on the steps," said Ragan. "And she turned him down! She said no!"

When they got back home from church, Sharon -- who was in college at the time -- could tell something was wrong with her mother. She asked her what Tinsley had said to her.

"She came in and sat down, and she was all bothered, and I asked her, 'What did he want?' And then she told me, 'He wants a date!' So I said to her, 'Well I hope you said yes!'"

She seemed reluctant and maybe a little taken aback at the same time, Ragan said.

"She was like, 'No way! I am not going out with him!'" said Ragan.

"Maybe she wanted my permission, now that I think back on it," she said. "But I didn't like my mama being at home all by herself. So I told her that I thought she should go."

So her mother tromped on over to Tinsley's house and said, "Okay, I'll go out with you," said Ragan.

"But I didn't expect that two weeks later they'd get married," said Ragan. "She had known him for years, so we all knew he was a good man. But if I had done something like that, she would have let me have it!"

Shortly thereafter, Tinsley took Ragan out to dinner. Ragan didn't really know what to expect.

"He took me out and he gave me this diamond necklace, it had three diamonds on it, and he said to me, 'My other daughter has one, too. And I want to know that now you are my daughter. And so I want you to have this.' It was very sweet, the way he did it. And he has been my dad ever since."

That was 23 years ago, when Ragan was 20 years old. "So there is no age limit on getting a new dad," she said.

Two years later, Tinsley gave Ragan away at her wedding.

"He walked me down the aisle, with tears in his eyes," said Ragan. "When he gave me away, he did tell me that next time he wasn't going to marry a woman that had a daughter about to get married -- it cost him too much money!"

When Ragan's children, Lauren and Lindsey, were born, Tinsley was right there, "sleeping in a chair in the waiting room for hours," she said.

When Ragan was stuck in Miami once and got homesick, "he flew all the way there to bring me back home," she said.

Tinsley -- "Wie Wie" to Ragan's kids -- has been a dad of many talents, said Ragan. Not only does he repair lawn mowers, like many other dads -- but he also cooks and even sews.

"He sewed all of my babies' nursery comforter sets," she said. "I had looked at a set in a magazine but it cost way too much. So my mom said, 'Just buy the material and Wie Wie can make it.' And it looked even better than the picture in the magazine."

"Wie Wie" still sews Ragan's now teenage girls' bedspreads, pants, and even their prom dresses.

"He's made a lot of curtains for me, too!" she said. "He always has gifts for people. He takes gifts to church all the time for everyone there. Sometimes he takes the whole church out for lunch."

In fact, that's where Ragan will be today -- spending time at church and having dinner with "Wie Wie," her "bonus dad."

"I don't like it when people use the term stepchildren or stepdad," she said. "There's not anything wicked about Wie Wie. He's not my stepdad. Sometimes I call him my 'bonus dad.' But, really, he's just my dad."

And the fact that there's no blood relation has made no difference to Ragan's daughters either.

"When the girls were trying to raise money for things, they would go to Wie Wie's and pick up pine cones for 10 cents each. Now who else gets paid that good? Ha!

"And whatever he does for one kid or grandchild, he does for every one of them -- they're all the same," she said. "Wie Wie loves my kids and they love him. They don't know any different.

"He's treated my mother so good. They're always so very happy, and mama's happy, he loves and takes care of her, so that makes me happy.

"He might not be blood, but he is my father!" she said. "My Heavenly Father has blessed me with a Bonus Father here on Earth. Happy Father's Day, Wie Wie!"