I’ve been gone for a while now, due in part to the sudden passing of my father, who was a sort of larger than life figure for me for 30 years.

As shown here, my dad was clearly a badass. He cussed, watched football, ate steak, and worked out at least an hour a day. He also emptied the dishwasher, organized his bathroom drawers, and planned family vacations. He taught me how to play golf, shoot pool, and play cards, and he taught me to strive to accomplish more than I thought I could, to work hard and be happy. He expected a lot, but never failed to make sure I knew how proud he was of me and how much he loved his little girl.

I’m going to miss my dad terribly, but I would never trade all the pain of this loss for all the years of memories I’ll get to keep. Also, these photographs:

When my parents were only dating. This lasted a few weeks before they ran off and got married.

A handsome devil, this one.

Their third of 42 Christmases together.

We still have this gold rocking chair and I am never giving it up.

I was also very small here.

What this holiday taught me was this: anything can happen, at any time; make sure you never take your loved ones for granted and please keep things in perspective.

Here’s to a new year and a new beginning. Thanks, Dad, for giving me a great start, and more than I could ever deserve.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.