We bought some flowers for Caldwell's Sunday service. Felicia made the arrangement look pretty. It was a nice way to honor dad.
This week it will be a year since my dad passed away. As is the case with fathers (and moms, too, most likely), you wonder why you didn’t listen to them more. And then when you’re ready to be all ears, they’re gone.
Still, the thoughts are good. So are the memories.
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June 22, 2011
Ellen/Reid: Felicitations. I hope this finds both of you well. What’s not to like about summer in those parts other than heat, mosquitoes and humidity? Same thing down here, but here you toss in snakes and other critters.
This time next week we’ll observe one year since your grandfather’s passing. I’ve been thinking of him quite a bit lately and it’s hard to believe (like your and Tim’s two year anniversary, Ellen) that it’s really been a year. That whole blitz of worry and travel and arrangements last spring and summer seems like so long ago. My PC screensaver is still the shot of him hoisting a frosty MGD just a couple of weeks before he died. Even the few sips of a cold one he managed to get down brought some joy to him. I’ll probably replace the screensaver sometime soon with a shot of your grandmother but will keep that photo of him handy for those moments when I wish he was still here which is more often than you think. I replay the final day and hours not as often today as I did those months ago and it occurs to me now that he passed with some solace knowing that his family was pretty much in order, his wife was being cared for, his own kids had grown and were relatively responsible, and he had four grandkids that have more than exceeded his expectations. There wasn’t any unfinished business on that score and given the amount he talked about you guys and Andy and Joe those last few days he could for the most part just let things go. At the time the hospice lady kept telling us to remind him of those very things as a way for him to ease his own passing. How they know that he could hear and process what we told him is beyond my meager comprehension. But that was good enough for me at the time and was probably as it should be for him. Next time I’m in the Midwest I plan to stop by to pay the old boy a visit.
Nothing new out West. Ellen, grandma certainly appreciated your call. She sounds pretty good, all things considered.
And thanks, too, for your Father’s Day calls. Those were nice to get. Route to me a few more photos now and again so I can see visually what’s going on in your worlds. I giggle every time a shot comes through of Henry. If there is a more contented dog who knows his place in the scheme of things, I don’t know where that dog would be.
In a month we’ll be in Wyoming. Really starting to get gizzed about it. Ellen, please don’t fret over your plans to join us. No biggie at all. Your summer is full enough with a kitchen and just rejuvenating from the school year. People are nervous about the nighttime temperatures up high but it will be what it will be. Hope for the best and plan for the worst. I’ve been climbing aboard the elliptical machine for 20 minutes or more and every day brings a little more improvement. Just have to keep at it. I’m not so lucky when it comes to those arm exercises where you push yourself away from the table. That’s not working out so well.
Well listen, I’ve got to run, literally and figuratively. Again, keep those calls and photos coming, and maybe, hopefully, we’ll all get together under fun circumstances sometime soon.
