February 29, 1952 - October 2, 2004
After he passed away, my brother and I went through his house. After he passed my mother gave me his Bible, which actually was my grandfather's that had been passed down. I opened it and what I found floored me.
He had saved my first haircut, documented where I was, how old I was, who did it..everything. He saved my first writing, with dates and times. The one thing that blew me away was the letter that he had written to me on a Valentine's Day when I was very little. He wrote how he had saw pretty flowers and wanted to get me a pretty flower and a card, but he could not afford it, so he wrote me this letter to tell me how much he loved me, and signed it Dada. UNBELIEVEABLE I thought as soon as I read it. Those are the times that you wish they were still with you, and that you can tell them everything you ever wanted to say.
The best gift that I got I think was actually getting time to say goodbye to him. He lived for about 2 months after his diagnosis of cancer, and I prayed for him to be cognitive enough for me to talk to him. The next day I went in and he was sitting up, eating..only he thought that it was back in the 70's and I was a little girl. Sometimes, he would remember that I was older and we would talk for a long time. We got to mend fences, as matter of fact, he never remembered there being any kind of rift between us. It was so nice to finally talk to my Dad like I should have always been able to, but alcohol robbed us of that until then. The last few times I visited him, when I would leave he would say "I love you, I surely, surely do sweetheart". He said that a lot to me. It meant a lot. I miss him a lot, but he will always be in my heart.
