Someone I Never Talked About On Gather

 I am really big on family...being a part of their lives and always being there for them when they need me. But I was thinking today that the majority of my posts and pictures about my family are the ones that are here and now. What about those who are gone from my life but not from my heart and my memories?

With Father's Day quickly approaching, I was thinking about my father who has been gone from my life for 37 years. My father died from cardiac related disease when I was only 18. I really miss him. He was a wonderful father. Provided for his family, loved us dearly and just was a heck of a good man.

He brought laughter to the dinner table. When Mom was busy and Dad had to make dinner, he would always say "I make a mean bowl of cornflakes and toast." and by golly, that's what we had. He would play games with us as we did the dinner dishes...like whistling a tune and we would have to guess what song it was. After dinner clean-up was never boring.

He worked so hard to make us kids happy, even if it meant staying up on Christmas Eve to put together a bike or toys and finally hitting the sack around 4am, only to find 3 excited kids waking Mom and Dad up at 5am "cause Santa came." I never heard him complain.

I think about all the things that my father missed in my life. He missed my High School graduation. He missed my "capping and pinning" from Nursing School. But the event that I am the most sorry that he missed was being able to be a grandfather to my girls. And I am equally sorry that my girls never got to meet their grandfather.

I just wanted to tell you all what a great man (at least to me) my father was.

Here is a picture of my Mom and Dad, along with my brother and me, taken very shortly before my Dad died.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy