Monday, September 15, 2008

A Year Later . . .

Saturday was a family day.

First of all, Saturday was the one year anniversary of my Dad's passing. I can't believe it's been a year already. It feels like it was just yesterday. We wanted to commemorate this day and make it a day dedicated to Dad.

Brother Phil and I met up with brother Jim in Meadville PA, home of my favorite nephew! Thanks to Mike and Jenny who let us invite ourselves over and then put up with us as we used their house as a meeting spot to leave one vehicle and have a good potty break in the middle of our trip!

We left Jim's vehicle at Mike and Jenny's and headed on to Sheffield. Since we were concentrating on Dad today, we started with lunch at one of his favorite restaurants, Dutch Treat in Spartansburg PA. It's a quaint little place in the middle of Amish country, so you're sure to get some good old fashioned real food. No fru fru stuff on this menu. While you won't find quiche or lattes, you can be sure that meatloaf and coffee is on the menu. So, we had lunch and talked about Dad.

From Spartansburg, our next stop was Warren. Our Aunt Mary, one of Dad's older sisters, is in the Warren Manor in Warren. Since it was also her 95th birthday on Sunday, we stopped in with some flowers to do a little visiting and a little bad singing. Aunt Mary was trying to take a nap when we got there, but we quickly changed her mind on that idea! The aides came quickly to help her back out of bed from her afternoon nap and we sat and did enjoy a nice visit. Here is a picture of 95 years young with two of her favorite nephews!



That's Jim on the left, Aunt Mary and Phil is on the right. She thought Jim and I looked the same as the last time she saw us, but she was taken aback by Phil. She couldn't remember him having that much of a beard last time she saw him! I think that took a little for her to get used to!

We also got to meet Aunt Mary's room mate who is a lovely lady. It was just such a nice visit, and Aunt Mary was happy to see our motley crew. We left as they were started to get everyone together for dinner.

From visiting, we headed on to Sheffield to the local funeral home. In true family form, we were procrastinating with the ordering of the headstone. It only took us one year to the day, but we were finally there to finish off that business. Between the three of us, we chose a simple headstone that is similar to the rest of his family's markers that are at that cemetary. In this computer age, we were immediately given a computer drawn rendition to which we all made sure his name was spelled correctly and then Jim gave the official John Hancock on the form to have them go ahead with the stone! The stone should be in and installed in about six weeks.

From the funeral home, it was time to head to the cemetary. It was raining like the dickens but we stood there under umbrellas and again, just talked about and thought about Dad. Going back to the day a year before when we stood in those same spots. I still can't believe it's a year later already.

Shortly thereafter, it was time to head back to Meadville again. After a round of hugs playing catch with the kids and bathroom breaks, we were all back on our way. Jim headed back to Erie while Phil and I headed back to Ohio. It was a long day, but I'm glad I went.

Now, if I may be so bold as to speak for all of us, we miss you, Dad. There will forever be a hole in our hearts.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was nice to see our family once again and spend time at Dad's grave.
On our return, I found a gas station that had Dad's favorite cookies, MOLASES, so we had some in the car to remember Dad some more today.

Big Bro Phil

Mati said...

Wish I could have been there with you. Big hugs to everyone!