Happy 46th KP
18 years has passed already. There is not a day that goes by that I do not recall a memory of you. Tonight, I will light my annual candle in your memory and without doubt will shed a tear or two. You did everything right and you made me proud.
(I long forgave you for being a Buckeye over a Wolverine. You see, your dream won out again.)
Continue to come and go as you will. For I still feel your presence when you visit. And, as I wrote to you in "I Must Release You", I had to release you to go and fulfill your better dreams for as any parent has dreams for their child, you had ones of your own that needed to materialize. I keep your letter from Put-In-Bay to remind me how awesome you were. Remember that day in October when I took you down onto the beach from the bluff above at Ogunquit to say good-bye to the ocean and a giant wave hit the rocks and drenched us both; Or the day at Belle Isle when were were standing on the arch bridge fishing and a alligator was inching toward us and we both began to inch out of there! And next to finally, when we were in the Blue Ridge mountains and Jim reminded you that if you got up in the morning before the rest of us did, you should not to go out on the deck. Quickly, I interjected that you should listen to Jim because the drop from the edge of the deck was a couple of hundred feet down the side of the mountain if you fell over. But Jim, quickly came back to his point, 'no, the deck if safe enough to keep him from falling, it's the couple of dozen of timber rattlers that curl up along side the house for warmth during the night". Finally, and I tell this story all the time at your expense. When driving home from Pawleys, remember the license plate game we always played? But the one that really sticks was that day we were playing it and you say," Dad, there sure is a lot of them Cuyahogas!."
So as you do come and go at times, for I know that you do, always know that I loved you so much.
Rest in Peace
Happy Birthday, Dad.
