Worst. Birthday. Present. Ever.
Earlier this week, I got a phone call from the cemetary where my dad is buried. They were calling to let me know that his marker had been placed that day. I emailed my mom to let her know, and she fired back "Just in time for Dad's Birthday!"*I also feel better that the marker is there, but somehow I don't see it as a good birthday present. At least not one I ever want to get.
If you haven't figured it out already, today is (was?) my dad's birthday. He would have been 63. All week, I've sort of been thinking about what I would have gotten him as a birthday present if he had lived another 5 months. Things being what they are though, I'll probably make a donation to the American Institute for Cancer Research.
This is the last picture I have of my dad. I took it right before I left Omaha last Spring. I'm not overly concerned about posting it because most people wouldn't be able to recognize him from it. When I compare this photo to the ones taken at my wedding, or the ones we took the summer before he got sick, I have a really hard time believing the man in the pictures is the same person. My dad was always clean-shaven when I was growing up. I heard he'd had a mustache in college, but shaved it off when he was commissioned in the Air Force. I think he regrew the mustache after he got sick partly to try to distract people from how thin he had gotten - not that it really worked. But he seemed to really enjoy the mustache and kept a sense of humor about things. I also think he wanted his grandkids to remember him as the funny man with the mustache.
Anyway, it's also been exactly 5 months since he died, and this whole post is making me sad.
Happy Birthday, Daddy. I miss you.
posted by Legal Quandary at
07:24
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