Missing in Action

I have been out of touch for a few weeks and am slowly attempting to return a state of normal. After 13 days in ICU and about a day at Hospice my Dad passed away on Sunday, March 1st.

For the past year and a half he lived with us in New Smyrna Beach. He moved from the house he had spent over 20 years in with my Mother, put many of his things in storage and moved in with two teenagers. I always knew when he was coming because as he got older he shuffled his feet and his shoes squeaked on the tile. Every sentence started with "I have a question..."or "something is very strange." As you get older and start to forget things, there are a lot of questions and things are strange sometimes. He loved to go to Peggy's Country Kitchen for Goulash and JB's for a Shrimp Basket and Clam Chowder. He loved the NY Yankees, Syracuse Basketball and the Orlando Magic, his biggest complaint in the hospital was he could not watch the Magic Games (other than the food, he hated the food).

I mentioned I have teenagers, they fight, a lot. Many mornings before school he would come out and sing to drown out the fighting...other days he would wait til they left and come out and say..."is it safe?"...and laugh. He loved my chicken and would sit at the table and eat with my son and all his friends and talk about all kinds of crazy things. To their credit they listened and talked to him, never once did they roll their eyes or act anything but interested in what he was saying. A testament to some awesome parenting...

We were sitting around yesterday and my kids were remembering things that I had totally forgotten or never knew. When they were younger my parents would take them on road trips (separately of course). They would count the orange Schneider trailer trucks for the entire trip. My daughter would spend Friday nights at their house and watch old westerns in black and white with my Dad. She would make him popcorn and he would always tell her, "not too much for me Sammi." He spent hours swimming in the pool with them...driving them to practices, picking them up for me, taking them out to eat. Too many things to count.He loved those kids.

He had trouble walking distances the last year, every volleyball or baseball game I went to he said he wanted to go see them play. I wish I had made more of an effort to take him. I thought I had time. There is never enough time. Make no mistake..he drove me nuts the last year..but...I would love to hear those shoes squeaking across the floor one more time.