Bittersweet Father's Day

My father-in-law passed away last Saturday, so today is an awfully sad day for my family. Don was a terrific dad and the absolute best grandfather it was possible to be.  It was an incredibly tough week, not the least of all for having to teach a 5 year old what death really means ("I just want my grandpa to get up and walk." "I am very angry at God." Ouch.)  Mike has now lost both his parents to cancer, both within 2 months of diagnosis.  I am alternately sad and incredibly angry about it. (Not at God, but at my own father, who doesn't seem to want to be a grandfather. This is what we're left with? Really?)

Anyway, hug your fathers close, and take lots of pictures, even if they don't want to.  Don't worry about what you're wearing or how your hair looks or if you need to lose weight, just take pictures so later your kids can look through them for the happy times. Don didn't mind pictures, so long as someone remembered to take out a camera. All the pictures of my husband and his siblings with him as children are priceless. Sadly, there are no pictures of him and the Princess alone. (One of the above is the Bug, and one is the Pirate. Have you been reading my blog long enough to know which is which?)

We're back home now, and it doesn't seem quite believable from here. Everyday life goes on, and every once in a while it hits you what's going to be different.  Don never hesitated to make me feel like a member of the family, and never treated any of the in-laws any differently than he did his own kids.  I can't claim that I'll miss him as much as Mike does (not that it's a competition), but it's certainly left a giant hole for us all.  Father's Day is going to be tough, and I can selfishly say that I am thankful that the funeral didn't fall on my birthday. He was a great man, and he's going to be greatly missed.


You can read his obituary here, if you're interested.