I miss my dad

Sigh.... On this day 7 years ago, my father took his last breath on this earth.

I miss him a lot. He used to tell me some great pearls of wisdom. He was a joker and loved to laugh. Not everyone got to see that side of him, but I did. I guess you would say that I was his favorite, but he didn't have 'favorites'. He adored my kids. When Olivia was born, we couldn't go to Ohio right away to introduce her to the family. She was born at the beginning of November. I got a call that year on Thanksgiving day from him. He asked me where I was eating dinner and asked for the address. When I gave him Shawn's parents address, he said "I'll see you in about 7 hours. I want to meet my new granddaughter". I was shocked and thrilled. That story always puts a smile on my face. He drove all that way just to meet my baby girl. He sacrificed having dinner with the rest of the family to see me and my girl. He stayed for 5 days and we had a blast.

He was a crabby, cranky man who took no crap from anyone. He commanded respect wherever he went. I admired that about him. He would walk into a restaurant with me and ask any man in the restaurant to remove their hat because they were disrespecting me. And shockingly, the men would remove their hat.

I never looked at my dad as my hero. I looked at him as the person who molded my character and ethics. He would do anything for me. I can't speak for any other person in my family, just my experience.

My dad taught me how to work on a car. He called it his "powder puff" mechanic's course. I had to know what to do if my car ever broke down. He didn't want me to have to rely on a man if I was stranded.

As you can see, I really admire him and miss him a lot. I have so many memories flooding my brain right now. Most make me smile. A few make me sad.

When my father was dying, we rushed to Kentucky, where he lived, and to the hospital. I got their late and they weren't going to let us see him, but we pled to see him since I'd just drove 9 hours from Maryland. He was sedated and in a drug induced coma at the time. The nurse told me to be brief because they could not control his heart rate and it was up and down and all over the place. I walked into the room and his heart rate stabilized to 68 beats a min and stayed there. The nurse came in and said "I don't know what just happened, but his heart rate is stable. He must have been waiting for you to get here". WOW. The next day they woke him up because all of his vital signs had stabilized. I just knew that I would have a lot more time with him and didn't say all the things I wanted to, to him. I regret that every day.

He went home a week later because they were not able to put a pace maker into his chest because his arteries had all hardened from smoking. They told the family that he had between 1 week and 10 years to live.

We lost him 1 week later. So, I am very sad today. I am grateful that I have the memories I have.