When he died back in 2001, I felt that grief that takes your breath away…that pain which reaches so deep into all of your muscles and nerves that you are pretty sure you will never feel alive again.  His death was the most important thing that has ever happened to me.  It changed me from the person I thought I was to the person I am.  I called upon all of the stubborness and determination and a little of the eccentric personality traits learned from him to change myself from being a victim of my life to being in charge and having chutzpah (which I like to refer to as balls) to stop the insanity.

After the initial grieving, I was relieved that his life was over – I knew my dad and I knew that my dad was ready to go.  I now know that he suffered severe bouts of depression.  He verbalized many times to Phil and to me that he wanted out – I know and knew that he really wanted away from my mother…but I will not crucify her in this blog…this is about my dad.  His mind was finally quiet…it was over…and this is exactly what he wanted.  My love for him was able to allow me to be happy that he was finally dead!

We all have those outline bullet points or the A.1.a. in the outline of our life or the events which we always refer to as before this happened or since this happened.  My dad’s death is the capital A in my life.

Onward and Upward.

Until next time.