October 9, 2008 I Never Knew I Could Be So Sad

that's what my aunt linda (dad's sister) said when she heard about dad passing away.

my dad passed away on september 21st in hawaii with all of our family by his side. he was having such a great time and loved hawaii so much.  what a beautiful place to have our last memories with him. his passing was so sudden and it has been devastating for our family to say goodbye. we love him so much. he was such a great dad. i am so proud of the person he was. what a wonderful example of humility, faithfulness, love and compassion he is.

our last few days in hawaii, all of my family spent most our time together in mom and dad's room. making plans and phone calls and discussing details. nic wrote a great obituary. it was good for our family to be there, all together, in close quarters and talk about dad and how we could sum up in the obituary who he was and how we felt about him and also talk about what we wanted to be said at the funeral. there is so much good to say about dad.

the funeral was on september 27th and was perfect. such beautiful flowers, music and speakers. i am so proud of nic and mom that they could stand and represent our family and pay tribute to dad and thank everyone in the community. i am amazed at how many people loved my dad. there were hundreds of comments on the klce website, many messages of love and concern for our family from people we didn't know well but who dad was a friend to, business paying tribute on their marquees, so many people offering service to our family. i heard many stories from people whos lives he touched or how he was a friend to them or helped out in a time of need. there were many kind words and stories shared with us. dad would be embarrassed by all the praise and admiration, but he deserved it all.

we never knew we could be so sad. we miss him. we also know families are forever and that we will be with him again.