Goodbye Dad

No matter how prepared you are to lose a person that you love, it is harder than you expect. My dad’s health was declining for a while. Long enough that he was actively preparing for it. Preparing me for it. He did just about everything he could to reduce the load on me that inevitably came as his only child. He added me to his accounts and had all of his paperwork in order. He made sure that I knew what he wanted when I would have to make the hard decisions on his behalf.

It helped, but it still hurts.

As with every human, he was multi-faceted. He was a farm boy who studied history and Latin for the entirety of his life and loved nothing more than to share what he learned. Preferably over a beer or three. In his twenties he spent hours upon hours improving his handwriting, taking pride in each signature and the beautiful (and copious) notes he took while reading. His career spent installing x-ray machinery required a unique balance of physical strength, ingenuity and deep technical knowledge. He seemed to know something about almost everything, and if he didn’t, he made sure to rectify that fact.

He was aware of his mistakes and for the most part, he made sure that I didn’t fall into the same traps.

I could go on for hours, after all, I am my father’s son, but he wouldn’t have liked that attention. So I will say this, I would not be the man I am today without his guidance and example, and I aim to instill the principles he passed on to me, in my son.

Goodbye dad. I miss you.