And I Still Miss Him

This is my Dad and today he would have been 88 years old.

I have been thinking a lot about my family the last few days.  Mostly, the family members who are no longer with us.  For example, my Dad.  Being the youngest as well as a daughter, Dad and I had a special relationship.  Was it always good?  By definition, heck no!  Dads and daughters sometimes butt heads!  But, on the other hand, a Dad and his youngest daughter always have a special bond that can't always be explained.

Dad fought all my monsters, protected me from loose dogs, killed spiders in my bedroom and came all the way over to my apartment to load (and unload if necessary!) my mouse traps.  Dad fixed what I broke and started to explained things to me that I needed to know.  He gave me my first tool box complete with tools.  Craftsman tools, of course!

One of my favorite Dad stories was a little thing we did whenever he wanted to get away from Mom some evening.  That meant he didn't feel like doing whatever was on his "honey-do" list and he didn't want to hear Mom bitch about him doing nothing for an evening.

For real, he'd go up into the attic where there was a phone.  He'd call me at my apartment and ask me to call back and ask for him.  Ok, whatever, I'll give the guy an out for an evening!  We'd hang up the phone, I'd wait a few minutes and call the house.

Mom would answer and I'd start bellyaching to her that I broke something again.  My poor vacuum cleaner "broke" more often than I can tell you!  Anyway, I'd bellyache to Mom, she'd call Dad down from the attic and then Dad would "complain" on the phone in front of her about having to fix whatever I broke . . . AGAIN!  Fine.  I'd remind him quietly on the phone to bring the pizza and in about a half an hour or so there would be Dad on my doorstep, pizza in hand.  We'd spend a quiet evening eating pizza and watching a movie and he'd get out of doing chores at home.  Win/Win!

So, walk with me down memory lane as I remember my family.

My sister Barb and her husband Bill.

The older I get the more I think I look like Barb!

Barb and Jim, mugging for the camera!

 I miss her.  She was my voice of reason, my confidant, my supporter, my friend.

I don't have good pictures of my Mom.  I didn't have a digital camera back in the day so I only have pictures of her towards the end of her life.  My Mom was really a beautiful woman, but that's not reflected in these pictures where she's swollen from the medications she was on. 

Mom and my brother Mike.  This was 1997 shortly before she passed away.

Mom with two of her favorite sons, Mike and Jim!

And here was a rare sight.  One I can only remember seeing twice in MY life.  Then again, I'm the last of six children so all of this must have happened LONG before I was born!

This is four generations of men in my family back in 2003.  Starting with the smallest, my great nephew Evan who is now a strapping young man of 11!  To the right is his Dad, my nephew Mike.  I won't give his age!  On the left is Mike's Dad, my brother Mike.  And in the middle, is my Dad.  Mike and Dad have on their Hawaiian party shirts because you can't have a bad day in a party shirt!  This was in 2003 and we were celebrating Dad's birthday.  I thought it fitting to end with a birthday pictures.

 

Happy Birthday, Dad.  I love you.