My Dad

(Not great quality on this photo but it shows the complete joy he had. It was taken just a little over a week before he died.)

I lost my Father on Thursday November 17, 2011. It has only been ten years and a couple of weeks since I lost my Mother. Both we knew were dying although Dad's passing was a little more of a surprise to us than Mom's. I wish I could be a fly on the wall as they embraced on the other side. Oh what reunions there must have been. My Uncle (Dad's just younger brother) died just over two months ago which left my father as the only brother left. I am thinking that my Dad got lonely for his brothers. Either that or they had a project to do that my Dad's abilities were need for.

I have seen such tender mercies to me because of the loss of my father. My family had planned to make the trip to Utah for Thanksgiving to spend time with him. As it is, he died a couple of days before that, but we will still be in Utah for Thanksgiving. So in a way, Dad is still getting us all together. I decided to come to Utah the day I found out about his death. I bought me a one way ticket and because my computer doesn't connect to the printer, I asked Alan to print it off for me. Before he did so, he typed in his frequent flier number and it bumped me up to first class. I was able to get through security faster and off the plane quickly.

Another tender mercy is that I left in such a hurry from my home, and the shock of his death, that I hadn't thought that I would need photos for my Dad's viewing. I left them all behind. However, they were not all on my computer at home, I would have to go searching through negatives to find some of them because they were taken before I had my digital camera. I was devastated. I had to put it out of my mind because I just knew that I would fuss over it and make myself sick so I dropped it and concentrated on what I could find here in Utah. I mentioned to Ken, my brother, that I wanted a few of Dad's things for the display and so we decided to go down to my Dad's farm and look around. In a box of my Father's things were a stack of photos. The ones that I had agonized over were there in the pile, plus a few that I hadn't thought of. What a blessing!

I look forward to seeing many people that I knew as a child growing up at the viewing and the funeral. And being with my siblings has been a joy. I have the best siblings anyone could ask for. We are all supportive and kind to each other and that is such a blessing. I can't imagine going through all of this by myself. I am grateful to have them around me at times like these. I love them all so much.