Father's Day

These pictures are from the last Christmas I had with my Dad. I drove up on Christmas Eve and was able to spend the week with him, if anyone works in retail will know how hard it is to get off at the time, but my boss knew the situation and let me have the week off. My brother and niece and nephew were there too. They managed to get there a few days before me. I left around midnight to drive up there, I knew I had to get there before too early in the morning. My Dad was like a kid at Christmas now. I remember when my brother and I were kids, waking up at six in the morning and running in their bedroom to try and get our parents up. They were always pleading for just a little more time to sleep. Now the roles have been reversed. My Mom and Dad are up at sun up or earlier, reading to start Christmas day.

I get there around six in the morning and I actually was there before anyone woke up. My niece opened the door for me and Buffy. Buffy ran in to let my niece play with her than she went looking for my Dad. My Dad was in bed and Buffy was all tail wagging wanting him to get up. By this point he had been sick for a few months, the cancer came back at the end of the summer, so he wasn't all that strong.

The picture above is one of my favorite pictures of me and my Dad. Christmas was wonderful and no one wanted to leave. Within a few months we all were back up there as my Dad went into the hospital. He got out again, but was back in before long. The cancer started out in his colon, went to his liver, lungs and brain. Sometimes he didn't know where he was, he would think he was back in the Navy.

This is my first Father's Day without him. Every Father's Day I would call him and he would act like the day was no big deal, but I could always here the pride and love in his voice. My Dad was a short man, around 5'4", but in my memory when I'm with him I'm always looking up at him.