Saturday, October 27, 2007

My dad

I know it's been a while since my last post, but it's been a difficult month. My dad, who is 85 years old, and who has been married to my mom for 48 years as of yesterday (Oct. 26), was admitted to hospice last week and will not be with us much longer. I'm so glad he made it through that anniversary for mom's sake. The hospice staff were so very sweet ... they had a cake and ice cream for him and mom, and they took pictures of them in his room.

It's very difficult to even type, as he's in such pain that I tell everyone that it would be easier to let him go than see him in such agony. But now in hospice, they are controlling his pain much better than they did in the hospital, so he's comfortable now. But he's also mostly sleeping now, too, and you cannot understnad what he says when he does try to talk. Today he slept through our entire visit, and his blood pressure is dropping, so we know it will be soon.

The saddest part to me is that he will never get to meet my little Maria. He absolutely adores children, and his grandchildren can do no wrong. One of the funniest things I can think of about him is, he was a very strict father. Ex-military, by-the-book, and a 'do as I say, not as I did' kind of dad. And he was stricter on me than on my brothers, because I'm a girl, and I was the baby. Ok, so not to the funny part yet ... his grandchildren can run through his house screaming at the top of their lungs, and he would sit back and say "that's just music to my ears!" My brother eloquently pointed out that it most certainly was NOT music when we did it! But thst's my dad.

Mom and I had to go through the bank box looking for his will, and we checked out all the things he had in there. He had some pennies in there ... one from 1900 and one from 1906. I didn't realize they were United States currency, as I had never seen that type before, until I read the writing on them. Pretty cool. And the only other penny he had in there was from ....... 1964. Guess what year I was born? Yep. So I WAS the favorite, right?!?!? Right!?!? Ha!

Dad was strict, but he was pretty cool sometimes. He was always good for a banana split at Mr. Smith's ice cream shop. And he loved to take us swimming at the military base where he retired from, and where he still worked civil service. He loved his family more than anything. I took Maya to see Omi today and she mentioned "Papa" more than once. I guess she was wondering where you were. I'll have to find some old pictures later to post so my children will know who Papa was and how much he loved them.

We love you, dad, and we will miss you.