Wednesday, June 2, 2010

We Miss You

I just seem to find myself coming back to this blog periodically, I am not sure if anyone else also revisits these entries, but since I do keep coming back, I decided it was time for another posting.

It has now been just over 4 months since Dad has died and there are still times when I miss him just as fiercely as the day he died. Last weekend was memorial day weekend, which was one of his favorite holidays. Even as a devout Catholic who actively worshiped, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving were his favorites. I think that this is because of the memories of the activities of those holidays, both really centered around friends and family gathering together.

There are so many times when something small might happen, some personal or professional milestone reached, some disappointment or some interesting sporting event or national event occurs that I still nearly find myself reaching for the phone, because these are all times that would have prompted a phone call to Dad in the past. (Or if I thought there was any opportunity to get a bet on a game I knew we would both be watching)

I think that part of writing this posting is my way of "calling" him to tell him about the trip we made to Blairsville this weekend. Calling him to tell him all the details of the visit, as I would whenever I got home from visiting Mom after she died.

MJ, her son Sam and I took a trip out to Blairsville on Monday, Memorial Day, to visit with Dad and Mom. The Blairsville Cemetery posts flags on the site where each veteran of any conflict is buried, and it was important to Dad that when he joined that honored gathering that his site should also display a flag for his service. So we were disappointed when we got to the grave site and saw no flag marking his plot. Thinking that perhaps we could rectify the situation for next year, I phoned the cemetery office and left a message on the answering machine about the missing flag. Having forgotten to tell them something in the message I phoned back to leave another, and was surprised when someone answered. Long story short, 10 minutes later Dad had a WWII marker and flag on his plot.

We also took a nostalgic tour around town, reminiscing of the backyard adventures at Gus and Adele's and at Grandma's house. Driving by MJ and John's house, and past the house on Brown street, although neither MJ nor I could remember which house was the one they lived in. We drove past Gus' store and the Asper Building 1928, built the same year Mom was born.

We spent a couple of hours at the grave site, catching them up, with one of the major highlights being Brother Joe wrecking his boat on a rock within hours of having it put into the lake for the season. I believe he was laughing at me as he was told that as we were driving to the cemetery down the main street of town within 30 minutes of the start of the parade, I drove by slowly, waving like the mayor to all the people who were gathering, many of whom laughed and waved back. (Nephew Sam was trying his best to hide in the back seat.)

Some of the parade came all the way into the cemetery and as it approached, we walked out to the entrance to watch the veterans group march by for the ceremony that was being held in the cemetery. We watched very little of the actual ceremony and went back to the grave site before the mayor began his speech.

Of course the ride home had to include lunch at Clems, and the BBQ was as wonderful as always, thank Sis for buying lunch!!!

So Pap Pap, that was the highlight of my Memorial Day that I just wanted to share with you. I Love You and miss you terribly, but we are helping each other get by. We many times call each other during those times when we would have been calling you. I will talk to you again soon.

Tim