Dad's passing

Sadly, my dad passed away November 29th. He went in the hospital on the 22nd and I left from Florida to go to Virginia on the 25th. We brought him home on the 29th to hospice care and he died 4 hours later. He wanted so badly to go home and I am glad we were able to get him there.

He was a remarkable man; raised on a depression poor farm in Mississippi, he managed to go into the CCC's and the Army where he learned to operate the radio. That led him to Washington, DC where he got a job with the FBI. He did a
lot of work on himself to make that jump from farm to FBI including taking ballroom dance lessons. He lost the Mississippi drawl, but he never lost his love for his birthplace and his family. We moved many times with the FBI, but every summer we loaded up the car and went "home." Of course, we had to go "home" to Mom's family in Wisconsin, so we were usually gone the entire month of August.

While he was in the hospital, I stayed with him overnights. I knitted Christmas presents and talked to him, even sang some of the old songs we sang in the car and later with his guitar playing friends. There were so many wonderful memories. He could do anything he put his mind to and he always told us we could do the same. He'd say, "Of course you can do it; you're my child." He meant it too. We were not allowed to say, "I can't." After he retired from the FBI, he built a house in Callao, VA and a boathouse for his beloved "Wis-Mis." It is hard to imagine looking at a piece of land and deciding you were going to build a 2-story house all by yourself, with no training... and with only a little help from friends and family, but he did and he did an amazing job.

The grandkids all grew up there crabbing off the pier and playing in the sand. They often brought their friends with them to spend the weekend; it was that kind of home. There are just so many wonderful memories and I am so grateful to have such a remarkable, wise, loving and giving father. He lived to be 90 and he left an enormous footprint for all of us to follow.