Happy Birthday Dad!

Although my Father is no longer with us I would like to take this opportunity to wish him a Happy Birthday wherever he may be and let him now that those of us who knew him best still miss and love him as much as we ever did, as well as let everyone else know a little about him. He would have been 64 today, however he was gone a few months before he turned 59 and as anyone will tell you that is far too early.

Since he has been gone I have been married, two more grandchildren have been born between my brother and myself and countless moments of everyday life have been missed, however the one thing that his stayed consistent are the lessons of life that he taught me while he was here. It is funny, because although he is no longer with me I feel I have learned more from him since he has been gone in the last five years than I did during the other 25 I spent with him. That is not to discredit the job that he did raising me, but rather praise him for it. Anyone can teach someone how to drive a stick shift or how to throw a football, but to me it takes a real man to teach somebody how to raise a family and conduct yourself with respect and treat other people with the same respect that you feel you deserve. It is these life lessons that I continue to learn from everyday and often find myself thinking back to things my Father told me when I was younger but just didn't understand yet.

I am sure that some of the learning experiences just come from getting older and starting a family myself, but is from the way that my Father raised me that I will try to raise my son. As a said during his eulogy when I was younger I didn't know about bills or stresses at work all I knew was when my Father walked through that door home from work I was the happiest kid on Earth. I don't think he even had a chance to put to his coat down before I was jumping on him and dragging him back outside to kick around a soccer ball or shoot some hoops and the crazy thing is not one time did he ever tell me no. Sure he had his faults like everyone does, but when it came to his family there is nothing that he wouldn't do, between coaching sports, driving us all over place or just wrestling on the floor he always made sure he had a smile on his face even though I now realize in the back of his mind he was probably like, "Jesus Christ, give me a minute." I can even remember in high school calling him up late night and having him pick us up from the loft a few times where I am sure he could get drunk just from our breath and never did he utter a word to my Mother about it. The next day we would always talk and he would tell me to be careful, but he never sold me out or yelled at me. In fact during the whole course of my whole life my Father never raised a hand or even his voice at me once. Most people find that hard to believe even me, but I swear to you it is the truth. It is with that kind of patience and love that I hope to raise my kids.

As time goes on you get used to important people not being around anymore, but I don't think you ever really get over it. You kind of become numb to things the good times aren't quite as happy and the bad times aren't quite as bad, you've been through the worst and know you can deal with anything. Anyway I would just like to wish my Dad a Happy Birthday and let him know we all miss him.