The best dad in the world: because he is mine

This is a sad post to write, but I feel like I have to write it. Early this morning my dad passed away. He had been sick for a very long time and we were all as prepared as we could be for it to happen. My mom slept in bed with him and he passed sometime during the night in his sleep, very peacefully. In some ways it still doesn't feel real, but in other ways it is a blessing to know that he is happier and free now. The last thing we said to each other was "I love you" which I am so grateful for because not everyone gets to say those things to each other.

I was thinking about some of my favorite memories of my dad. One was when I was in high school and we had a brat of a foreign exchange student stay with us. I couldn't stand her and the foreign exchange coordinator was always really mean to me and would call the house constantly to ask me why we weren't entertaining her enough (he was kind of a bully and would never say those things to my parents, just a 17 year old girl). When I told him over the phone that I didn't want to do the other part of the exchange and go to her country, he tried to talk down to me. Without me asking or knowing, my dad got on a phone in the other room and gave that guy a piece of his mind and totally backed me up! I still think about that sometimes because I remember how awesome it felt to have someone stand up for me.

Another favorite memory was actually not that long ago, maybe a few years. For some reason my mom couldn't take my dad to a doctor's appointment, so I drove out to Trenton to pick him up, take him to Gainesville for the appointment, and then take him back. When we were at the doctor's office he introduced me to all of the medical staff who know him so well and he was so proud of me. He kept telling them where I worked and what I was going to school for. The best part was that we had a great conversation in the hour we spent in the car together! We talked about life and he told me stories about his youth (he did some crazy things, bucket list things, way before he even met my mom!). It was that conversation that made me decide to go to graduate school because he acted like he had such confidence in me, and he gave off this attitude like "of course you can get a master's degree! You could get three if you wanted" :)

My family and I are going to miss him terribly, but we know that we will see him again. We love you dad.