Wednesday, 24 October 2012

  • MY DAD PASSED AWAY TODAY... Wednesday - 10/24/2012

    According to his wife, he passed at 1:15AM. He went quietly in his sleep, at home, which is what we had all hoped would happen.

     

    Latter part of 2008 - family visit

     

    Writing in his journal - he did this every night until this year and then he still tried when he was able to do so. I hope to read those journals one of these days.

     

    8/14/2012 - Birthday - 98 years old!!

    It's been a truly tough few years for him due to dealing with Alzheimer's and the short term memory loss. Add the fact that he had more medical issues than you could shake a stick at and that didn't make it any easier. Yet through it all, his wacky sense of humor seemed to always be at the forefront, except when he was frustrated at himself for not being able to remember the things that he wanted and that pissed him off more than anything. I know I can understand that.

    My Dad was an interesting man. Slow to anger, not one to be demonstrative, yet he was loving in his own way. Yes, we were your typical dysfunctional family, yet there was a great deal of love, laughter and joy in our household even when our parents were dealing with four teenagers all at once.

    Dad spent 4 years in the Navy and continued to have nightmares about it through out the remainder of his life. My Twin and I were born while he was out at sea on one of those long tours. When he finally saw us, we were almost a year old, and he said I was rocking the high chair so hard when I saw him he was afraid I would fall out. My twin, on the other hand, started crying and Mom had to comfort her until she adjusted to him.

    I had a falling out with my Parents when I was in my early twenties and they (actually my Mom) basically cut me off the family tree. Long story. Perhaps I will tell it one of these days. It took almost 12 years for us to bring it back around and then many years later my parents lived with me for close to 2 years until they could find an apartment in San Diego. I became very close to both of them during that time and found out that my Mothers life and mine parallelled each other in more ways than I could ever imagine. It was a very interesting time in my life.

    When Mother passed away in 1992 (they had been married 55 years by then), I became very close to my Dad even with working my fanny off trying to move up the corporate ladder. We spent several evenings together each week and I made sure I was with him on weekends. Often spending the night sleeping on a very uncomfortable couch just to make sure he was doing OK.

    As he became acclimated to single life, we saw each other less because he was involved with the church and was beginning to have a social life of his own. Still, we made it a habit to get together each Saturday so we could go to Balboa Park or some other interesting place and always ending up at either Wendy's or KFC for our evening meals.  Those were wonderful times indeed.

    A couple of years after Mom passed away he let me know he had met a woman he wanted to marry (25 years his junior! LOL) and I couldn't have been happier. I was there for the wedding and have since been involved in their lives together.

    They were a wonderful couple and although the immediate family did not see eye to eye with Amalia (nuff said), it was enough to see that there was a great deal of love between the two of them and their life was quite rich in many ways.

    I'm not sure when the funeral will be, but would expect it to happen no later than Saturday.

    At this time it appears I will be the only sibling that will be attending as the older Sis cannot afford the trip and my Twin is not sure she can get a flight in time that will not cost an arm and a leg. She is looking into bereavement flights and we will see what transpires on that regard.

    My Sister-In-Law and all her kids/grand-kids will make the trip from Yucca Valley and Michael will also be by my side for the grave side services. They will be done quietly and respectfully per Dads last request.

    Dad, I love you with all my heart and want you to know how much you mean to me. I hope you, Mom and Jimmy (Brother) are enjoying your reunion on this beautiful day. 

    Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated at this time. Thank you for letting me share a few thoughts about the man that was my Dad...

     

     

     

     

     

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    • From: MzSilver
    • Posted: 10/24/2012 4:56 PM

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